Big Brother is Always Watching
by everfaithful
Summary: Companion piece to No Such Thing As Miracles. You dont HAVE to read the first story but it doesnt hurt. The boys find out that there is more than the supernatural to worry about, and that treachery comes in small packages.
1. Chapter 1

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This is a companion piece to No Such Thing as Miracles, taking place after Deans long and painful recovery. The brothers find out that the supernatural isn't all they have to watch out for, and that treachery comes in small packages.

Again … these aren't my toys, but I really enjoy playing with them.

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Dean sighed as he was wheeled out of the hospital. It was policy, and he hadn't been able to talk them out of it, but he was finally being discharged.

Eight months. Six months in skeletal traction, two months intense rehab to rebuild everything.

He thought he was going to go crazy. But finally, today was the day.

And he didn't know who was happier, him or Sam, really, as Sam walked beside him. Once they were out of the hospital, at least through the doors, Dean held up his hand to stop the transportation guy and carefully stood up. He felt good. So he hazarded a few steps. They went fine. All was well with the world.

"Man, I am so glad you're back." Sam said, clapping his brother on the back. "I'm telling you, there's something wrong with the car."

"There's nothing wrong with the car." Dean said smugly, catching the keys Sam tossed at him and getting into the driver's seat.

"I'm telling you, something's wrong. It makes this weird noise when it starts..." Dean started the car and arched an eyebrow at Sam. No weird noise. She was purring like a kitten. "I'm telling you this car is possessed." Sam said with a sigh as Dean laughed.

"No… the car is not possessed." He said. "She just missed me. So you all packed up and ready to go or are we going to… where ever you've been living?" Dean asked as he selected a tape and put it in the deck as he pulled out of the parking lot. God it felt good to be behind the wheel again. It was like coming home. Well for him it was coming home.  
The Impala had been the one constant in his life for as long as he could remember.

"I'm packed." Sam said. He didn't want to stay here any longer. Too many bad memories, too much that he didn't want to be reminded of. Hell, he never wanted to see another McDonald's for as long as he lived. "So I figure we'll take it easy for a while."

"Like hell." Dean said. "That sounds dangerously close to the V word. No way you are suckering me into another one of those." He knew things would have gone down much the same if they had been on vacation or not but he had just spent 8 months flat on his back. He wanted to kick something's ass, just to prove to himself that he could still do it. "You can't tell me you haven't been keeping an eye out on the internet for freaky shit."

"Okay, maybe I've been keeping half an eye opened." Sam said as he shifted in the seat. It felt good to be in the passenger seat again, as much as he bothered his brother about driving. The car wasn't the only one who had missed Dean on the wide open road. "Okay, no vacations. Not for a while, I promise."

"So what did you find?" Dean said. This time was different than the last time he'd been released from the hospital after his father's death. He'd had more time to wrap his head around it and more time to come to terms with it. It helped that he'd been able to come to terms with his father in the first place before John crossed over, and this time he really did. Cross over that is. He knew John was at peace, which helped him come to peace with it.

"Nothing really interesting. Haunted hotels, poltergeists at a school..."

"All girls' school?" Dean asked hopefully with a smirk.

"No. It's not an all girls' school. And even if it were they would be jail bait." Sam said with a laugh.

"True enough. I don't know… let's start with the hotel. Probably just publicity stunt anyway but what the hell. Start off light before jumping into the deep end again." Dean said with a shrug as he tapped out the beat of the song that was playing. "So where is it?"

Sam smiled. " Connecticut ." He said as he opened the lap top and pulled up the website. "It's an old mansion turned into a hotel in the 40's." He began to describe the place. "Reminds me of the haunting, although I doubt we're gonna see Catherine Zeta-Jones wandering around."

"That would seem too much like a vacation." Dean said with a laugh. Connecticut was good. Far from Louisiana . Far from Kansas . Nothing like those two places. And lots of time to drive and get reacquainted with his baby, even if Sam insisted on making derisive comments about it.

"I ahm… had a body shop take out the dent in the front left hand side, they matched the paint pretty well." He told Dean. "Can't really tell she was ever dented and no, it wasn't me driving when it happened." He said putting up both hands. But he wasn't the one that fixed it either. He knew that he didn't know enough about it to do much good.

The last 8 months had been interesting for Sam. He had gotten a part time job, nothing impressive. Mostly handling files for a local law firm who was impressed with his Stanford resume. He had wanted to dabble a bit… look at what he was giving up to make sure that he could do it. He had thought about making Dean retire. The demon that had killed their mom and Jess was in hell. Dad was in heaven… they could go on with their lives. 

He interviewed at the local university, and could have gotten into law easily. The firm he had been working at offered him an internship if he stayed on. It had been so tempting. A chance to start his life again, to follow his dreams. But in the end, he had turned both down. He didn't know if it was the call of the road or the sure and certain knowledge that Dean would never stay in one place once he was out of the hospital that drove him to walk away from his dreams a second time.

He never told Dean about any of it.

Dean looked at Sam and pulled over. Getting out of the car and going to look at the repaired area. Nodding and mumbling to himself before getting back into the car and back on the road. "It was Dad. Or more correctly Tommy." Dean said. "I'd forgotten." Because so much had happened afterwards. "That was Dad's clue that I was, you know, not me. When he told me, and I didn't freak over her being all dented and scratched. Guy did a good job. Probably best I didn't know about it, might have set my recovery back a few days...weeks."

"It was hard enough to keep you in bed as it was and there was no street on the side of the hospital you were on, so I couldn't drive Christine by to show you she was alright. " Sam told him. That was the main reason he didn't tell Dean about what he was doing for money, or the college interview. It would have caused trouble with his recovery. And their dad had told him to take care of Dean, so that was what he was going to do.

"You make me sound awful." Dean said. "I wasn't that bad, and you know it." Not really anyway. Maybe from some angles...okay a little. "And stop calling her Christine, you're going to piss her off you know. Then how will we get to Connecticut ? Might as well go to sleep, cause I plan to drive at least to Tennessee before pulling over." 

"Dean…I was dating your nurse remember…you were that bad… hell some days you were worse." Sam pointed out with a laugh. The demon being sent back to hell had in some ways exorcised Jessica's ghost from his mind. He still thought about her, still missed her but it wasn't a huge gaping hole where she used to be anymore. He had been able to move on, even if it was only on to casual dating.

"No I wasn't. She was completely playing you, dude. Sympathy vote and all." Dean said with a chuckle as he switched tapes to something else. "But it feels good to be on the road again." He liked the freedom of the road, the liberation. Feeling it all the more keenly after having been bedridden for most of the eight months, with various poles and tubes sticking out of his body. The biggest indignity had been the catheter, he hadn't gotten over that from the car crash nearly a year ago, and then he'd woken up with another! "And good to see you out and about, little brother." He'd worried about Sam for a year, since Jessica's death. Made worse when their father had died the first time. His brother's intensity on just about everything scared Dean. Not the intensity itself, the chance that it would burn Sam out. He knew what it was like to feel worn down by everything, even if he believed he hid it moderately well.

"Yeah well don't expect me to turn into an absolute man whore or anything, but yeah I had a good time while you were out of commission. Someone had to take up the slack after all." Sam said with a grin. "But yeah, I've been missing this too. Bet you never thought you would hear me say that one." He laughed a little. It was good. Times were good. With the demon gone he didn't have that hanging over his head either. Didn't matter about his plans and his little war or how many other kids he had done this too, cause it was over. They were just normal hunters now.

Actually he was expecting Sam to say he was settling down, and Dean could go on without him. Which he wouldn't have done. Sam was still his brother to look out for. Besides, he would have missed the brat anyway. So even if it had killed him, he would have stuck around.

"You're right, never thought I'd hear you say that." Especially with an Ivy League school (Tulane) in New Orleans . "But I'm glad you did." He said and punched his brother's shoulder for good measure. "Woulda missed that annoying voice in the passenger seat."

Sam returned the punch. "Yeah, well, Dad told me to take care of you." He said. "So you're stuck with me. You know me, the only time I listen to Dad is when he's dead." It didn't hurt to say it this time. Seeing him with step into the light, having nearly a year to deal with it. It was okay. Wasn't his preferred choice for how things had ended but it was okay, because it wouldn't do any good for it not to be okay. "So how you feeling? I mean really. Are you completely okay, almost okay… still hurting like hell but dealing with it okay..?"

"Dude, I'm okay." Dean said with a laugh. "Clean bill of health, been lifting weights, workin' out, getting it all back in working order." He sighed when he caught the look from Sam. "I don't hurt anymore." He told his brother. "And nothing is going to bust on me any time soon. Got my strength back up. Just gotta work on the endurance is all. No running  
marathons for a while. So any big chases up the stairs and out the window are all on you, bro. But I'm okay. Really."

Sam nodded. "Okay." He said, letting it go. It was a more honest answer than he had honestly anticipated, but with what they had both been through, some things had changed for both of them. And that was alright. It was good even. He settled comfortably into the passenger's seat and pulled out his cell phone, calling the road house.

"Hey Jo, is your mom around?" He asked. "Oh okay… well just wanted to let her know they finally sprung Dean, so we're back on the road." He nodded and rolled his eyes making the sign with his free hand to indicate that the girl was yammering on. "Cool." He said eventually. "Yeah we're off to Connecticut . Haunted hotel. Figured we'd start out small and work our way up this time." He laughed a little because it was appropriate for what the girl said more than any real thought she was being funny. "Sure, thanks. Tell Ellen we'll call and check in soon."

"What's with Jo these days?" Dean asked.

"I don't think it's just a these days thing." Sam said. "I think she's a little sweet on you or something."

"Don't even joke about that. Ellen would have my balls in a vice. Besides, sure she's cute and all but it would be like doing my sister. " He made a face at the thought.

Sam laughed. "That is a disgusting thought." Sam said. He looked at his brother. First time out of the hospital and he jumps into the car for a long, long drive. Nearly across country. He nearly questioned the wisdom of that, and wondered if he should have found something in Mississippi or something, but Dean looked happy. Even more than that, at peace.

Which just cemented his theory that there was something weird about the car. At least it wasn't dangerous weird. Just an abnormal connection to a hunk of steel resting on four rubber tires. Not that he would ever say that. Dean would just deny it anyway, like any good addict!

"Guess it doesn't help that Ellen pulled her off the New Orleans hunt and hasn't let her out of her sight for eight months." Dean said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, Ellen isn't into Jo being a hunter. Can't say I blame her. If I were to ever have a kid I don't know that I would want them in this life. Would depend on their temperament. Some people just aren't cut out for this and I think Ellen is right, Jo isn't no matter how much she wants to be part of the hunt. She would get herself killed real fast on her own."

Dean grunted in agreement remembering all too well how she had very nearly gotten herself killed the one time she went hunting with them. "Gotta say I am surprised that she listened as well as she did to Ellen."

"Yeah well I wouldn't expect that to last very long. She'll get a rebellious streak and head out on her own." He knew how it was to be an independent young adult with an over bearing parent. But he didn't think she would be running off to college when she left. She would go running off to the hunt and they would all be lucky if she didn't come back as one of the monsters they hunted. If it weren't for Dean and Sam she would have died her first hunt out.

"Yeah, well, it's not like she's going to run off to Stanford, your alma mater is safe." Dean said with a laugh. He pulled off the freeway and onto the back roads, where he could really put his car through her paces. Which was what they both needed in a way as he rolled down the window. "I expect we'll hear from her soon, she's got that annoying little habit."

Sam laughed. "Yeah that would go over well. Missouri wanted us to go to Lawrence , but I just didn't see much reason. Hope you don't mind that I didn't even talk to you about it. I just wanted to get back into the swing of things." He didn't want to deal with any reminders. Missouri was a reminder. "This ghost, if its real, is a typical hotel ghost. You know  
the kind the ones that make bed covers fly off the beds, choke the guests, nearly kill the help."

"Sounds like a blast. Hey, you think it's a full service hotel? Because you know the physical therapist recommended I continue massage therapy you know." Dean said with a grin. Ah...now that had been a medical professional he wouldn't have minded sticking with.

"I don't know. It's one of those secluded places out in the middle of no where. But if they say you need massage therapy then we'll make sure you get it." Sam said sincerely. "What else did the doctor say you needed?" He asked. He had asked the doctor but since Dean was conscious and all he wouldn't share information on his brother's health, and he hadn't been able to bring himself to get Ash to hack into the hospital records.

"Dude, stop acting like I'm going to break. I was making a suggestion to get me laid." Dean said with a scowl. "The doctor said I need to be treated like I'm normal and return to my normal activities. That's it. That's all. He said I might be a little 'achy' or something, but compared to how 'achy' I've been in the past, it's nothing. Take a percocet, drink a beer, sleep it off. Really, stop worrying so much. I'm not going anywhere. I mean, if I can survive a jolt strong enough to ruin my heart, a car crash hard enough to kill my brain, and an apocalyptic battle to the death with my possessed brother that shattered nearly every bone in my body, seriously, a little pain is nothing."

Sam looked at him, but he wasn't reassured. There was guilt in his eyes. Dean had been hit with the jolt of electricity because Sam had gotten tossed down the stairs by the thing grabbing his ankle. If he hadn't they would have gotten the kids up and come back to face it together. He had been arguing with his father instead of paying attention to what was   
going on around them when the semi hit, and well, the possessed brother thing was obvious. If he had been able to look at it all objectively he would see that none of it was really his fault, but he couldn't do that. Circumstances didn't allow  
for that logical thought process to kick in. For nearly 2 years he had been traveling with his brother and causing him so much pain… "Yeah… alright." He said and swallowed hard turning to look at his lap top. "But you know… we could still get the massage therapist if you want."

"Only if she's cute." Dean quipped. "Aw come on Sammy. Christ. I'm not blaming you for anything. I chose to fire the taser when it was clearly a wet area. And I chose to scrub the cipher off my back. I didn't choose to drop you on your head though, so I guess any mental defect in you is kinda my fault. Cheer up and calm down. This is an easy  
job, right?"

"You should hope to be as defective as I am." He said with a faint laugh. He had been accepted at not one but two Ivy League schools. And he had walked away from both of them for his brother. Sometimes though he wondered if he had done his brother more harm than good. "You chose to do it to save me, Dean. You didn't choose for Dad and I to be arguing instead of paying attention on the road."

"You got knocked around pretty good both times if I remember right. And I know I do." Dean pointed out. "So please. Please, please, please stop with that whole self guilt thing. It is really not the way to attract girls, the bad boy  
sensitive thing only goes so far. And they usually attract clingers. So just relax, I'm back, and I'm looking forward to putting powder in your shorts again."

"You put powder in my shorts again and you could be revisiting traction." He said with a grin. "And I think I did pretty well the last few months with the sensitive thing going on. Went out with two of your nurses." He smiled. He wasn't sure he could let it go. But he could at least keep it to himself. It would move to the back of his mind along with shooting him in the asylum and at least a dozen other things that he had done to hurt his brother since they had found each other again.

"Yeah, that's before I got up and walking." Dean said wit ha laugh. "I don't know, should we drive straight through or what? I guess I could be convinced to stop at some point...hours from now..." He looked at his brother. "Got a question though. Have you had any visions? We've assumed all along they were tied to Azazel, and now he's roasting in hell..." He felt, after possession, he could be on a first name basis with the yellow eyed demon at this point.

"We're gonna have to stop at some point." Sam said. "Whether we stay in a hotel or I drive, cause there is only so long I can handle my knees being cramped up." He thought about it a moment. "I don't know if I have had any visions or not. I get these weird mad scientist type dreams… a lot of them lately, but I don't know if that's just cause of all the hospital time or if it's because of something going on out there. "

"That's something to think about. More mad scientists out in the world. Probably idiotic ones." Dean said with a laugh. "I got a few more hours left in me." He was still building up endurance. At least endurance at his own standards. He realized that the hospital and him differed on that point, because he thought nothing of staying up  
for days at a time, battling who really knew what, while the hospital was insistent on eight hours of sleep a day , even if they had to drug him to get it.

"Okay. Let me know if you need me to take over." He said. "We can probably make it to Savannah before needing to call it a night." He suggested. That would give Dean another couple hours of driving without pushing too hard. Sam had the feeling his brother was forgetting that he wasn't going to be up to his old standards right away. It took a while to  
really recover from that much damage done.

"Ah, the land of Georgia peaches..." Dean said, thinking of other times spent in Georgia . "You don't think they need us in Connecticut right away, do you?" He said with a teasing grin as he gunned the engine just to hear the roar and turned up the music.

A few hours later he was pulling into a Savannah motel, jaw set. He was so fucking stiff it was unbelievable. And tired. Shit, this sucked. Not like he'd admit it to his brother.

Dean didn't have to admit anything to his brother. Sam was easily able to figure it out on it own. He was a little stiff so he could well imagine how his brother was feeling. "Wow… I think I have gotten soft." He said as he got out of the car,  
stretching. "I'll get the room." He had used real money for the last 8 months, not wanting to get nailed on the fraud because they had stayed in the same place too long. It was an adjustment to go back to fake names, and ID's. But it was easily done he supposed. He just had to go do it. Which he did.

He came back a couple minutes later with a key and a couple of papers. "Next best thing to room service. A diner that delivers from across the street." He said with a smile, getting back in the car. "Room 139, over behind the pool."

Dean gave his brother a look and hoped that it was a coincidence that it was by the pool. Hydrotherapy had been a big part of his rehab. And he thought that Sam was taking this whole 'Take Care of Dean' thing way too seriously. It was annoying. He was the caretaker, after all. And now he didn't need taking care of, right? But he drove over to 139 and parked the car, grabbing his bag.

"Delivery is good." He said with a chuckle. "The car needs a rest."

Sam smiled. "Yeah the car isn't the only one. I can't even feel my ass right now." He admitted. "Didn't drive a whole lot while you were down. Just to work and the hospital and home really." He said as he grabbed both of their bags from the trunk and headed for the room. He didn't think about it really. Dean was still recovering whether he wanted to admit it or not, and Sam was going to make sure there were no set backs. Although part of him wondered if he shouldn't have  
insisted on another couple months in New Orleans , just to be sure.

"That's her problem. You kept her all reined in. Believe me, drives a person, and a car, nuts." Dean said as they got into the room. He stretched and grabbed the ice bucket. "I'm going to go get some ice, order us some dinner, would ya?" He needed to grimace and clench his jaw without his brother hovering.

"Road trips aren't as much fun on my own." He said. "Yeah, I'll order. Anything you've been jonesing for?" He asked, knowing that hospital food was evil, and definitely not on Dean's list of must haves. There was only so often he could sneak in the junk food. "Already working on the beer."

"Pizza. A big greasy pizza." Dean said with a chuckle. "And finally beer. Could only hear 'Now, Dean, just hit your morphine button again and shut up' so many times." Then there was the period in his rehab, when he was up and walking, that Sam had to drag him out of a bar. Who's bright idea was it to put a bar across from a hospital anyway? "Gonna get the ice." He said and headed toward the ice machine around the corner, leaning against it with eyes closed, taking several deep breaths. "Sure, return to normal activity. Doc, you don't know what my normal activity is."

Sam didn't know how bad off Dean was, or he would have started looking at help wanteds in the paper. Instead he called the local pizza parlor and ordered Dean's favorite pizza, some hot wings and salad for himself. He had been trying to eat better, even if that meant just adding salad to his junk food regimen. He stretched out across the bed and stretched. It had been far too long since he had spent that many hours in the car.

Dean punched the ice machine as it filled the bucket. Because if his hand hurt, he could ignore everything else. Then returned to the room with the ice. "Hey." He said as he sat on his own bed and took off his boots. "So what kind of mysterious deaths are we talking about at this place?" Focus. He needed focus, because staring at the ceiling for eight months and watching 'Ghosthunters' on SciFi (and laughing his ass off) threatened to drive him nuts.

"Suffocation, strangulation, usually attributed to accidents but there have been 10 in the last year alone. Never all the same way, but usually young women in their early 20's." Sam said, more than willing to focus on the job as well. The last 8 months had been endless for him as well. Day in day out, nothing but the same thing over and over, punctuated by a great deal of worry for is brother, survivor's guilt, and his own physical pain, which he had brushed off as noting compared to his brother's. He suspected neither of them were going to be enjoying weather changes ever again.

"Why do they always target young women?" Dean mused. "So we check in and check it out...got anything on the history of the place, or too busy surfing for porn while I was at the ice machine?" He teased his brother. Because he would never live that one down. Ever.

"No, too busy ordering way too much food. And strangely, there has been virtually no porn on my computer for 8 months." Sam pointed out. Of course the fact that he had been dating during that time was as much to blame as Dean's missing presence. "Pretty sketchy. Was a popular site for society's' who's who in the '20s … pretty much started after that… a death here and there for a while until it started ramping up over the last decade."

"Great." Dean said as he got the door and paid the delivery man. "Okay, Sam, the food sucked, but they didn't starve me." Dean said with a laugh as he got the food to the table and grabbed a beer and a slice of pizza. Perfect, with the grease nearly making the cheese slide off. "Okay, so we've got an escalation. Gotta love that. Sounds fun. Shoulda broken me out sooner."

"Cold pizza for breakfast…" Sam said about the food, and merely gave his brother a look about breaking him out sooner. He grabbed his salad, a couple pieces of pizza and a hand full of wings before going to stretch his long legs out on the bed. "It's probably just a run of the mill vengeful spirit." He said. "Fortunately neither of us are girls so we should be safe enough this time around." 

"I'm not a girl. You, I'll have to keep an eye on." Dean said. "How many times did I have to lay quietly as your girlfriend changed my dressings, going on and on about how 'sensitive' my brother was, and that 'oh we went to a nice romantic comedy last night, and I think he shed a tear...' Awww..." Dean teased. "That was more torturous than anything the   
orthopods could even THINK of doing to me."

"Yeah? Well I got a little weirded out when one of them said 'aw, how cute your brother has a mark just like that!'" Sam said with a shudder. "That was the last time I went out with that particular nurse." He said with a grin. It was a little freakish dating someone who had seen his brother naked on a regular basis. Didn't matter that it was her job.

"Hey can't hold it against me. Anytime they got me naked it was after I was really sedated under something." Dean said. It was the only way he'd stop fighting anyone long enough to get anything done. "But I'm glad you had a good time. The student nurses were something else though." Some were quite cute in a young way, all legal of course, but still. Didn't stop him from flirting though.

Sam laughed as he finished up his food. "Yeah well, one of us had to. You were too busy traumatizing them at first." He teased. "Had to get you out of town before some of them lynched you." The ones that didn't want to strangle him, wanted the chance to try and tame him. Neither of which Sam thought was a particularly safe endeavor … for Dean.

"They thought I was cute." Dean said, going for more pizza. "Salad? You ordered salad? What are you reverting back to a granola eating California tree hugging long haired...person?"

Sam laughed at that. "How does salad equate to being a granola eating what ever you said?" He asked, giving him an incredulous yet amused look. "Dude, I wasn't getting as much of a work out with you plastered to a bed. Had to do something I was gaining weight like crazy." His job had kept him busy but it wasn't the same.

"I wasn't getting any work out for five months and I lost weight." Dean said with a chuckle. At which point he started downing the protein shakes, sometimes five an hour, because he was NOT going to be a scrawny son of a bitch. It was with great relief when he started physical therapy. "You must have a slow metabolism. Or something. Guess I should keep you running then, keep the weight off."

"You were eating hospital food. It's almost impossible to gain weight eating hospital food. I was still grabbing what was easy cause… I so don't cook." He admitted with a laugh. "So they have you on any meds?" He asked.

"Nah, just pain killers and muscle relaxants when I need them. Basically I've been prescribed what we were carrying around anyway." He said with a laugh. "Just means it's easier to get a hold of refills. Why, did they put you on any medication? Valium? Lithium?"

"Not really anything like that, just something to help me sleep." He admitted. Although it was supposed to help with the nightmares. He had quite a few screaming night terrors when he had been a patient in the hospital. They prescribed the sleeping pill in hopes of getting him enough rest to recover mentally as well as physically. Sam stopped taking them after a couple weeks. He had sleep through his alarm clock sitting right next to his head. He figured it was better to deal with the night mares and lack of sleep than to be that vulnerable.

"Which you stopped taking." Dean said, knowingly. Throughout Sam's recovery, until he'd been discharged, they'd shared a hospital room. The night terrors were enough to ro use Dean out of a morphine induced half coma. But he wasn't agreeable to his brother being out of his sight until Sam was recovered for the most part. And in order to enable his own recovery, the hospital had given into Dean on that point. They were survivors of something horrible, after all. No one knew quite what, and they claimed to not remember, but it was during those horrible riots in the inner city that they were found, in the perilous condition that they were in too. It got them some sympathy play for when they wanted things their way. Like Sam staying with Dean. And Dean getting specialists that normally they wouldn't be able to even illegitimately afford.

"Dude, living on my own and sleeping through an alarm clock right at my head? No way. That's begging to be lunch." He said. He still had the night terrors. Sometimes he wasn't sure if they were dreams or visions they were so horrifying, he hoped they were just the psychological after effects of being possessed. God knew that if hunters came with shrinks in the know they would rack up some serious hours. He was functional, but Sam wasn't alright.

Dean looked at his brother, and seriously looked at him. He'd bear some watching. He hadn't come through this all as clean as everyone thought. Dean had always been better at sucking things in and keeping them hidden, even from himself in some regards. Sam had never really learned that trick (and maybe that wasn't such a bad thing, it had made Dean the perfect target for Tamiel after all). And made a note that no matter how much he was hurting, he wasn't taking anything. Because he needed to be awake to watch over his brother. End of story, end of discussion. 

"Or at least a nice afternoon snack." Dean said. "Seriously, dude. Salad?" He shook his head. "I'll get you back on burgers and slim jims soon enough."

"We'll have plenty to do to run it off here in a while anyway. Besides…I'm eating pizza… and wings… It's not salad alone after all." He caught the look his brother was giving him. "Dean, I'm okay…it's just bad dreams. I'd have to be messed up not to have had any. You were mostly comatose through yours, I think. "

"Yeah, lucky me." Dean said with a laugh. He'd had them. They were just flashbacks. Confusing flashbacks of just about everything he'd been through and everyone he'd ever met gelling into one big scary mess. Bad thing about comas, couldn't wake up from them. Just had to get through them until the next one cycled through. "But fine, I   
won't worry about you if you stop worrying about me." He said and waited to see what Sam would say about that one.

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Dean… you haven't stopped worrying about me since the night Mom died. How is it you plan to hold up your end of the bargain on that? I don't think you can. Not even if you really wanted to." He said with a smile, and making no promise of his own.

"Doesn't matter if I do or not." Dean said with a smirk. "I'm the oldest, therefore I'm in charge. Therefore you have to listen to me. So, you have to do what I say, which is quit treating me like -I'm- the little brother. Dude, I'm fine. Don't make me hit you or something." He finished his pizza and stretched out on the bed. It wasn't a hospital bed, which made it paradise. Even with the thin blankets, hard mattress and flat pillows. It was still paradise.

"No way. Dad told me to take care of you. He didn't say until you told me to stop it." Sam said with a grin. "Get used to it." Truth be told, Sam had been watching over Dean since Nebraska . He had gotten completely scared by nearly losing him that time and it had never left him. Each time Dean was hurt it just made it worse. Now he had parental permission …and that was something that Dean couldn't argue with … much.

"Huh." Dean said. "Well, problem. Dad's dead, which makes me the oldest Winchester , and therefore the head of the family, which means my wants, needs and requests should supercede those of a dead guy, right?" They had a year to deal with their father's death. It was easier to talk about the fact that he was dead, even if they still skirted around the reason why he was dead this time. Or the last time for that matter.

"Dude… it was the last thing he said to me. Nothing trumps a father's last request." He pointed out as he found the remote control and stretched out on his own bed. "So it looks like we are stuck taking care of each other." He said, knowing that had been part of his father's death speech the first time he had died. Watch out for Sammy… it was something that had been beaten into Dean's head since their mother died. Watch out for Sammy. Well Dean  
could watch out for him all he wanted to, because now Sam was going to take care of his brother.

"Just don't...hover." Dean said distastefully. That had been the worst part of the hospital incarceration. The hovering. The constant asking on how he was feeling, how the pain was, if he needed something. He was a legend in his own time at that hospital, the only patient they knew of in skeletal traction that, once he could move one of his arms, constantly turned down his morphine drip. He hated the drugged feeling. The wooziness. "I don't hover. Neither did Dad." Now, after his death (again) they realized their father had done the best he could under the circumstances, crippled by grief with two young boys to raise. Seeing their father step into the light, made whole with their mother, changed a lot of their perspective. And in the end, if the results were looked at, John Winchester hadn't done too bad.

"I'm not hovering." Sam said, giving Dean a look. "If I had been hovering we would have stayed in New Orleans for the school year and maybe you would have driven to the corner store." He pointed out. It had crossed his mind. Especially with his being accepted to Tulane, with a good job. Little things. Little things that had once seemed big things to him. Strange how a lot of perspectives had changed over the last year.

Dean scowled at his brother as he turned off the light and popped a few pain pills. "Might as well  
transferred me from the hospital to the asylum then." He said. "Me and a real job? Not likely.  
Night, Sam. I'm drugged, so wake me up when it's time to go."

"Will do." Sam said as he turned the volume down on the TV. He would let Dean sleep until he woke up on his own. There was no rush to get to the hotel. People weren't dying at the moment, the ghost wasn't going anywhere. Dean needed to take it slow. Truth be told, so did Sam . Eventually his eyes began to drift closed whether he wanted them to or not and he was pulled into sleep kicking and screaming all the way.

Literally in his mind, even if not body. He was being drug down a long white hallway, Institutional lights. Pulled through a set of metal doors and thrown down up on a table, Strapped in place, no matter how hard he fought, how loud he screamed for help. Wires were attached to his body, to monitor his responses, an IV shoved into his arm and fluids started. They moved around him and attached things injected things, never once speaking to him, never once acknowledging that he was aware.

And then the pain began…

Dean smacked Sam. He wasn't waking up any other way. Dean probably couldn't be heard over Sam's own screams. Pinching didn't work. Shaking didn't work. If this didn't work, punching was next.

All he knew was he was asleep in a nice drugged fog (which sometimes was good, especially when you were stiffer than a corpse in rigor mortis) and then Sam was yanking him out of his fog with terror screams. As if he was screaming for his life.

"Sam!" Dean tried again. "Wake up dammit!"

Sam woke still in the throes of the dream and fell off the other side of the bed, trying to get away from the pain, from the terror, he scrambled back into the corner. Parts of the dream still superimposed over the hotel room. His breathing was shallow and rapid as the dream slowly faded. "Dean?" He asked, still not sure if he were awake or asleep, which was dream and which was reality.

Dean wasn't as limber as he used to be right now. Better than he was last week, but not quite up to snuff. So he threw the melted ice water on Sam. "Yeah. Dean." He said. "Want a beer? You can tell me what the hell you were screaming about." Might as well pack too, he thought. Because the other patrons of the hotel had to be convinced someone was dying in here after screams like that.

Sam nodded. "Yeah." He said as he stripped off the now wet and cold tee shirt, pushing himself back up on the bed. "It's the same dream…. Except this time it was me." He explained what had happened in the dream. "Would have thought the night terrors would have subsided by now." He didn't know if it meant anything or not. He was sure it was just a dream. It didn't have the same feel as his visions did. Didn't have the same pull. But then again, they weren't being directed by Azazel any longer. Who knew how that would change things?

"Dammit, Sammy, you never said they were this bad." Dean said, tossing him a beer. "I'm not made of glass, you son of a bitch. You should have told me. Thought we were in this together?"

"They're night terrors. Not gonna be run of the mill nightmares, and … there's nothing anyone can do about it other than drug me senseless. I didn't see any reason to worry you even more about it when it's just… night terrors."

"Dammit, Sammy, you should have told me." Dean said, shaking his head. "Come on, let's get our asses to Connecticut . Don't give me that look, screaming like that, people are probably calling the police thinking I'm killing you. Though I should punch you in your freaking head, jack ass."

Sam got dressed and started to pack. "I told you I was having mad scientist dreams, didn't see where the details were so important. What's got you all worked up over this, Dean?"

Dean tossed him the keys. He might be awake, but he was still drugged. And he loved his car too much. "Look, dude, we're all that's left. It's just me and you. And if there's something in your head I need to know about it. Because what if they aren't night terrors? What if it's some vision? And even if this one isn't the next one might be. And I need to know." He'd lost his mother. He'd lost his father, twice. He'd be damned if he'd lose his brother and would use all the tools available to him to make sure he didn't.

"Okay." Sam said. "Okay, we'll talk about the dreams when they happen." He promised. He didn't know if they were visions or not to be honest. They were so vivid it wasn't even funny. Sam got behind the wheel and started the car. "See… there's that sound again."

Dean chuckled a bit as he eased into the passenger seat, shoving the seat back further than even Sam had it and put his feet gingerly on the dashboard. "That's because you're slamming the gas pedal. Gotta be gentle with her, can't be so rough."

Sam gave his brother a look but adjusted his driving style a little. "Okay so if you need to go back to sleep go ahead. I can get us there in one piece." He told him. He hoped they were through talking about the night mares. He had a hard enough time putting it out of his mind as it was, and that was where it needed to be… out of his mind.

Dean gave his brother a look. "Do you ever get sick of saying that?" He asked. "Dean you need your rest. Dean, why don't you just lay down? Dean, how about some sleep? Nurse, can I get a sedative?" He chuckled. "I'm good, really. Doc says I'm probably now in the best shape of my life. Of which he'll take all the credit for of course."

"Dean, you were too sleepy to drive and gave me the keys without asking." Sam pointed out. "It's three in the morning. Dude, sometimes it's just logic talking, not nagging. " Sam shook his head. "Over sensitive much?"

"No, you're the sensitive one. Not me." Dean said with a chuckle. "Just afraid if I go to sleep, you and my car will get in a bitch fight or something. After all, she's taking exception to you trying to treat her like any other normal off the assembly line car. She is a work of art and a mechanical marvel and wishes to be treated like such." That and he was  
afraid if he went to sleep, he'd miss something. And Sam was already proving himself to be less than forthcoming. Out of the misguided idea of taking care of Dean.

"Dude, you're scaring me." Sam teased. "You do realize that this… is just a car, right? An old car that has been rebuilt more often than an aging actress." Sam didn't see it as not being forth coming. He saw it as having a little privacy. Something he was going to have to get used to doing without again.

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that." Dean said. "This car is just like us, you know. She's the ultimate survivor. Completely wrecked a whole bunch of times and she still purrs like an overgrown kitten. Admit it, half the shit we've done, if we were in some Japanese plastic matchbox, we'd be dead. Like, years ago. You owe this car your life, Sam, might as well start showing some appreciation." And he was only half joking.

"Not saying I don't appreciate the car… Just sayin'… you need a real girl." Sam teased in return. He had definitely been grateful for the car when the semi had struck, grateful for the maneuverability. He just found it funny that outside of family, Dean's longest running relationship was with his car.

"Dude, tried that." Dean said. "I'm not built for that. Not with this lifestyle. And I kinda like this lifestyle. Go new places, meet new faces...kick demon and spirit ass along the way. Now if it would only pay, then it would be perfect. But ya can't have everything, right, Sammy?" He smiled a bit as the Impala cut across the darkness. doing very well, even if it was Sam at the wheel.

Sam drove on through the night. Grateful to have an excuse not to sleep. He wished that the drugs that produced a dreamless sleep didn't tend to make you mad as a hatter along the way. Visions he could cope with, these nightmares were something else. Ellen thought it was a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He couldn't completely disagree. It was possible given what his life had been like since Jess died. Hunting demons and ghosts didn't scare him. Not deep down inside. It was when the demons made things personal that it scared him.

He let Dean sleep while he refueled the car and got a cup of coffee and a packet of vitamins supposed to boost your energy. It was usually just a boost of caffeine in the system but he didn't care. He just wanted to make sure he stayed awake.

Dean groaned when Sam started driving into the sun and blindly fumbled through the glove compartment until he found his sunglasses, shoving the sunglasses on before fully opening his eyes. "Dude...when'd the sun come up?" He asked, slouching back down in the passenger seat. Guess he was more tired and more medicated than he thought.   
"Come on, next stop, let's get some coffee and it's my turn to drive." Sam needed rest, even if it was just dozing.

"Sure." He said, he was tired, and whether he slept or not, he was too tired to drive. "How'd ya sleep?" He felt bad about making Dean sleep in the car because of his stupid dreams. But there wasn't much that he could do about it. He took the next exit looking for a Texaco. He glanced over at his brother to see how he was not really expecting an honest answer. 

"Dude, I slept in a car. How do you think I slept?" Dean said, then grinned. "I slept great! Nothing like a real Detroit engine to lull you to sleep. I'm telling you, in my past life, I was probably a Model T or something. Your music sucks, that's the only bad part of my sleep." Because Sam had decided not to listen to his tapes and scanned the radio  
instead. It was Dean's own fault, he had made that rule. 'Driver picks the music, shotgun shuts his cake hole.' Didn't mean he couldn't complain though, Sam did anyway after all.

Sam laughed at that. "Dean… cars aren't people." He said, pulling into the gas station. "You can't have been a car in a past life. It doesn't work that way. That's like saying Dad was a gatling gun in a past life." He turned off the car. "I'll go get the coffee and chow, you feed your girlfriend."

"Dad was a full on Sherman tank in a past life." Dean said with a chuckle as he went through the glove compartment again for a credit card. "Get some oil too, windshield wiper fluid." He got out of the car and went to the pump. "Just ignore him. He STILL doesn't understand us, poor kid."

"No wonder I never fit in." Sam said as he went toward the door. "I was never a motor vehicle in a past life." He shook his head. He supposed in the land of delusion, Dean's fixation with the car was minimal. Nothing to really worry about. It was just weird. He grabbed two coffees and a few danishes. And then went back to get the oil and the windshield wiper fluid. He rejoined his brother at the car, content to move over to the passenger side. "We're about half an hour out." He said, downing the same sort of vitamin he had taken earlier in the night. Determined to stay awake.

Dean turned the ignition over and listened to the engine for a few moments, then pulled out of the gas station, drinking the coffee. The car, of course, was not making any sort of 'weird' or 'strange' noise and Dean turned it onto the back roads. "Half hour, good. You can grab a cat nap, because you look like hell. I know I got the looks in the family, but dude, you're on the verge of strung out scary." If Sam managed to fall asleep, he'd drive around for a bit.

"Nah, man, I'm good. I'll nap out when we get to the hotel." He said. "And I'm not strung out. Just… don't feel like sleeping." He took a drink of the coffee, and eased back into the seat. His stomach was upset. It was normal when someone needed sleep and couldn't get it. His muscles ached, and his head, well there was no describing the pain in his head. But he wasn't about to sleep. The dreams were too real. It was like going through it every night over and over again.

"Yeah, okay." Dean said with a snort. "Get some sleep, because in the car, on the back roads, doesn't matter if you have a nightmare or whatever." He pointed out. "I'll just turn the music up to drown the sound. I'm serious, dude, get some sleep. Can't go into a job like this and you know it."

Sam looked at his brother and for a split second all the fear of going back into that dream was evident on his face. "Yeah okay." He said with a sigh, and adjusted so that he was facing out the passenger window. Figuring he could fake it for a while, give Dean a little peace of mind at least. He didn't need this just out of the hospital.

Dean nodded and deliberately took the long way to the hotel. Even if he wasn't really sleeping, it was resting. And that would have to be enough. But sooner or later, exhaustion caught up with Sam and he really did fall asleep. For once a real sleep, his body was so tired.

So it was four hours later when Dean was shaking his shoulder, parked in the hotel's parking lot. "Come on, Sam."

Sam woke with a start, and looked around himself a little confused. "When did it get to be noon?" He asked as he stretched "Did you get lost?" He knew that wasn't it. Dean had a weird instinct for back roads and shit. He rubbed his eyes and groaned a little. Still feeling a little shaky but it would pass quickly enough. "You suckered me into a nap, didn't you?"

"Hell yeah." Dean said as he reached into the back and grabbed the bags. His recovery had been a slow one, but it had been steady. With each passing day he felt a bit more limber, a bit more stronger. Only a matter of time, really. And the way rehab had him working, he'd probably be in better shape than before. "You needed it. Come on." He  
looked at the hotel, through the glass doors he could see the lobby. "Yup, this place is haunted. Or just possessed by Emily Post or something."

"Oh wow." Sam said shaking his head. "We just can't escape the Martha Stewart wanna bes. You think she's a demon too?" Sam asked in hushed tones before pushing through the door and heading over to the main desk. "Hi, we have reservations under the name Hawkins." He said and produced the appropriate credit card. A few minutes later they had room keys to adjoining rooms. Mostly cause Sam couldn't handle the sweet, knowing smile as the woman pulled up the reservations.

"My son travels with his … brother… too."

Dean grimaced at took the keys, handing Sam's to him. "We ARE brothers, lady." He said, barely managing not to growl.

"Oh." The woman said and looked closer. There was a family resemblance. "Oh! I'm so sorry." She quickly apologized.

"Yeah." Dean said as he headed toward the stairs. He'd take the stairs, because it was better for him, and he didn't trust the elevators yet.

Sam made some apologetic gestures before quickly following after Dean.

Sam laughed a little as he got to the appropriate floor a little behind his brother. "I think you made her feel bad." He said with an almost giggling laugh. He was still a little punch drunk. But he was awake. And he planned to stay that way. "So… unpack … go into town to do research?" He asked.

Research he could get into. Something to focus his mind on. Something to shake off the feeling of impending doom. He started to say something else, as his brother unlocked the door when his cell phone rang. "Yeah. Oh, hey Ellen." He said. "Yeah, we're in Connecticut , didn't Jo tell you?" He frowned. "Wow… ahm… yeah definitely we'll let you know if we see her. No, I promise we'll let you know this time. Really."

Dean stopped unpacking and frowned. "Tell Ellen we'll send that blonde twit back hog tied Fed Ex if we have to." She better not be headed this way. Even if this was an easy job, Dean wasn't in the mood for amateurs. And Jo definitely was. He didn't remember being that much of an amateur at ten, never mind at Jo's age.

"Ahm… no.. no I'm sure he didn't mean twit… you know Dean, he has Dad's temperament when he's hurting." Sam said and gave Dean a look that said he wasn't helping. "Yeah… thanks. I think I'm gonna need it. What? No… no dreams. Really...wow…okay. Tell him to let me know what he finds out. Okay… talk to you later."

Dean made a face. He did mean twit. And he would carry through on the hog tying and bulk mailing if he had to. But he resumed unpacking. "So what's on Ash's radar?" He asked instead, moving the conversation off Jo and Ellen.

Sam frowned, not really wanting to get into it with his brother. He didn't want to deal with the situation at all but if he didn't, Dean would find out anyway and then there would really be hell to pay. "I asked him to keep an ear to the ground for anything about… you know… others like me." He said as he opened the door to the adjoining room and tossed his bags inside. "I wanted to check things out, ya know. Well he found a few. One is dead, murdered in a parking lot, another is in a mental hospital in Maryland and the last one… disappeared. "

"Disappeared, huh?" Dean said. "I wouldn't read too much into it. For all intents and purposes, you disappear from places after a few days or so, right?" He said, to assure his brother, even as he was reading into it himself. He'd have a talk with Ash. Sam didn't need this sort of thing, all info would go to Dean first from now on.

Sam laughed a little. "True enough and if they have people putting psychics into mental hospitals, it's no wonder we're disappearing." He said, wanting to believe that, and definitely wanting to not connect it to the dream he had been having. "So… research? Or do you wanna take it easy around here while I head over to the library?"

"You head over to the library and I'll go talk to the people. See what tales I can dig up that might help us narrow it down a bit." He was a big believer in folklore. Most of the things they hunted other people thought of as nothing more than urban legends and superstitions.

Sam nodded. "Sounds good. Meet you back here at dinner time." He promised and headed out the door. He decided to leave Dean the car, since the hotel was a bit out of town. Dean put on a good show of being up to par but he wasn't yet. It was only a mile or so back into town anyway. Would give him a chance to clear his head, and hopefully focus it on  
the task at hand, not the missing psychics.

Dean made sure his cell was charged, he'd find excuses to call his brother every hour or so. Because something was off with Sam. And it wouldn't be like it was the first time he'd take off to spare Dean trouble or whatever the reason was.

"Got it." He said and put on his jacket. Connecticut was cool this time of year. Or maybe he just felt it a little more lately. "Dinner time, see if we can find a Hooter's."

"Fine, we'll find a Hooter's." Sam said rolling his eyes. "If there is one in town. Might have to go a few miles down the road but if you will shut up about Hooter's we'll go." He said with a laugh. "Later man." He told his brother and started out the door.

"I'll shut up for three days about it." Dean said with a chuckle as he headed to the car and drove into town, passing himself off as nearly what he was. So it wasn't a lie. A postgrad student on a road trip across America to write a paper on folklore and mysteries. Well, the road trip across America was right, and he did keep a journal similar to his father's, so it kind of counted as writing a paper, right?

But he picked up interesting tidbits. So he called his brother, to try and tell the difference between fact and folklore, since he was in the library and all.

"Yeah man, what's up?" Sam asked, rubbing his temples. He had one mother of a headache still, at this rate he would be taking the heavy duty pain pills himself and willingly crashing for a night. He was looking over the microfiche of old news papers dating back to when the hotel was first built.

"Revolutionary war, it was an infirmary. Civil War, it was an arms garrison that had some accidents." Dean said. "Part of the underground railroad, at least two known serial murderers are believed to have stayed at least one night there...three suicides, and a mob hit on a wedding day. Anything like that come up in your research?" His brother sounded tired. He'd have to drug him tonight. He'd get him drunk, but Sam tended to talk too much when drunk.

"Let's see, Revolutionary war, yes, Civil war, haven't found anything yet. But it's possible, nothing on the railroad.. no way of knowing about the serial killers, suicides yes, mob hit, yes. I am betting the suicides or the mob hit are our best bet. Gonna see what else I can find out about… hold on." He said and frowned. "Hey wait up." He called out to a young woman who darted behind some of the stacks, it looked for all the world like Jo! He chased her for a while but lost her. "Dean… I think Jo is here."

"Fuck." Dean said as he went back to his car. "I'm heading over there now." He said, pausing as the car started up. "Be there in like two seconds. Don't worry, I've got rope. Still gonna argue with me that she's a twit?"

"I wasn't arguing I was saving you from Ellen." He said with a laugh. "I'll meet you out front. If she has taken off, shouldn't be long till we see her again since I am sure she is here for the job."

"If we can track demons, we can track a bubble headed girl." Dean said as he drove, pulling up alongside the library a few minutes later, taking a length of rope out of the car. He was not kidding about tying her up. Possibly kidding about shipping her back to her mother in a box. He saw Sam and waved. "All right. Where was she last? I so don't need  
this."

"Yeah, as if my headache could get any bigger." He said shaking his head and led the way inside the library. "I was over there talking to you and saw her over there watching me. Took off after her but she was gone before I got to her. " He said as he led the way, then frowned. "Side exit. Nice. "

"Son of a bitch." Dean said. "Okay, so we wait for her to turn up. She will. So what else did you find? Old man down at the bar, really informative. Seems to know where all the skeletons are buried in this town. He told me about the mob hit, sounds like something out of a Tarentino film, really."

Sam led the way back to the microfiche, and flipped through the pages rapidly even though it hurt his head to do so, the flashing light made his eyes feel like they were trying to explode out his temples. But he still sat there and eventually slowed the process, until he came to the article he was looking for, in the garish bold print type of sensational journalism prevalent in the 1940s. Delosean Wedding Massacre. It said on the front page. The article went on to describe how the wedding had been interrupted just moments before the final I do's with a hail of gunfire. No one  
attending had escaped injury and very few had escaped death.

Dean read the article. "Hey, the bride was kinda cute." He said. The good thing about newspapers then, they printed crime scene photos. Even if they were grainy and of poor quality. "Look at all that blood. Massacre is right. Says they had to completely redo, nearly tear down the walls because of the bullet holes."

"Really… makes me wonder if there isn't something in those walls that shouldn't be." Sam said. "Wouldn't be the first time some one took advantage of a tragedy and created more work for us."

"Think they'll let us tear down the walls?" Dean asked, leaning his chair back as he looked at his brother and silently handed him a handful of Excedrin. "So it was the ballroom, right? Think there's a wedding later today. We should crash. Pick up some bridesmaids or something."

Sam tossed back the Excedrin. "Definitely crash, definitely not on the bridesmaids. At… least not until we are done with the job." He said with a smile. "Yeah … we need be sure before we go tearing out the walls. Otherwise we could wind up explaining why you have the same finger prints as a dead guy… again."

"Okay, point taken." Dean said. He went to a computer and started to look through architectural guides and city zoning blueprints. "Gotta have something here." He said frowning at the results. "All right, here we go. Fifty years ago they took out a zoning permit to expand the south wall of the ballroom, increase capacity. Think we can exclude the south wall then, it was completely torn down. I'm still going for a bridesmaid."

"Okay… well… we can scope it out at the wedding, or I will while you scope out the bridesmaids, and then tonight we can come back in with equipment and check it all out. See if there is something in the walls that registers. If not…I don't know… that's a lot of bodies to salt and burn." He said.

"Yeah I know." Dean said. "this wedding could get messy too." he said as he printed out the blueprints. "Hopefully the food will be good. It's a hotel, they gotta expect people to just wander in, right? Or we could be long lost cousins or something. We'll figure it out."

"Go with the flow." Sam said. "Usually works well for us." He nodded. "Okay… so… chow then back to the hotel and see what we come up with." He suggested. The Excedrin was kicking in finally and he figured he could handle the rest of the day now.

"Food...first great suggestion you've had today." Dean said with a laugh, clapping his brother on the shoulder as he went to the printer to collect his print outs. "Hey, for once we're not eating a funeral on the job, that's gotta be an improvement, right?"

"Anytime we can avoid funeral food and hospital food in the same day…is a good day." Sam said as they made their way out of the library, neither brother noticed that they were being watched closely. Neither noticed the young blonde speaking quietly to a man in a crisp grey suit, or that she was pointing to Sam.

"Damn straight." Dean said as they headed back to the car. He thought he felt someone watching them, but when he looked, there was no one around. So he shrugged it off. "Hooter's, right? One in the next town over, five minute drive."

"Yeah I agreed to Hooter's." Sam said with a laugh. "You're a perv, ya know that." He teased. He didn't think so, he was just giving Dean a hard time since he had a fixation with the restaurant. Although he was pretty sure he had a fixation with the argument about whether or not to go to the restaurant.

"Yeah I know." Dean said as they drove to the other town. It was a full night, so they didn't get a close up spot. And Dean made sure he parked next to 'middle aged cars', cars with what he presumed to be middle aged drivers. Less chance he'd get a ding or anything in his car. "Come on, you're a guy. Gotta admit, it's great for digestion."

Sam laughed then. "Dude, beer is great for digestion, large breasted women…not the stomach you're thinking with there." It wasn't that Sam didn't appreciate the esthetics. He did. That was the problem, and he wasn't the sort of guy that could just go out and get laid. He needed it to be at least a little more than hi, how ya doin, have you seen my car, before he went there.

"Hey whatever works." Dean said with a grin. "Beer, large breasted women...either way my food goes down great." He said as Sam staggered. "Guess you're more tired than we thought...Sam?" Why did his brother have a tranq dart sticking out of his neck? "Shit! Sammy, come on." He said, putting his brother's arm around his shoulders and started running back to the Impala. Dammit, no Hooter's.

Sam tried to run as well but was losing his coordination almost as quickly as he was losing consciousness. "Dean, you can't do this." It was too soon for his brother to be hauling him around. "Not what he meant by normal activity." He slurred. Only years of training kept him moving at all. Years of their father driving it into their heads to run no matter the exhaustion, the pain, you kept moving. Dean was obviously a better student in that category, but Sam could manage. He was out completely by the time Dean got him back to the car, and settled inside.

"This is normal activity." Dean said, not bothering with seatbelts as he tore out of the parking lot. "Good thing they got you and not me, she wouldn't do this for you." Meaning the car. Of course, Sam wasn't talking, but Dean kept driving. No one knew back roads better than him as he made his way back to the hotel and snuck in, grabbing  
their stuff and coming back to the car. "All right, here we go." He said, getting the hell out of Dodge. He took the dark out of his brother's neck. "Son of a bitch." He said, throwing it into the backseat. Government issue, of that he was sure.

Sam was trapped in sleep. A near coma type sleep, but it didn't stop the dreams, because they weren't dreams at all. The visions played out as they had before, but the terror didn't wake him, barely caused more than a whimpering moan to escape his lips, even though he was screaming internally. The endless stream of tests, the pain, the threats. Dean standing at his bedside, wounded, barely able to stand himself. "Just hang in there, Sammy, I'll get us out of this… just  
hold on." And then the vision repeated itself.

Dean looked over worriedly at his brother as he drove. Finally he rifled through Sam's bag for the vitamins and energy pills. Getting drive thru coffee. Stopping quick for gas whenever he hit half a tank. Wouldn't do to try and see how long a tank of gas could get. The Impala got shit for gas mileage, the price of serious horsepower. And it was the horsepower he needed right now as he crossed into New York , headed down a back road parallel to I-88 toward Pennsylvania . No idea where he was going, just somewhere.

After a few hours he called Ellen.

"Ellen, it's Dean. Listen, we saw Jo. And something strange happened and you need to set my mind at ease right now or I swear I'm going to kill her."

"Okay, slow down and start from the beginning. Where did you see Jo and what happened?" She wasn't going to say anything to set anyone's mind at ease until hers was set to rest. At least she was alive and well. Although what the hell she was doing chasing after John's boys she had no clue.

"Connecticut. She gave Sam the slip, then Sam gets shot in the neck with a government issue tranq dart." Dean said. "Did I mention government issue? He's still sleeping right now, hours later. I don't believe in coincidences, Ellen. You need to convince me right now that Jo doesn't have anything to do with the government."

"Why would Jo want to see anything happen to Sam? Last I knew she liked you boys." Ellen said in confusion. "She has spent her entire life here at the road house, we don't make too many government connections here. And yeah, I am sure the government has a department to handle the supernatural, but they don't exactly have a 1-800 number posted around here. Are you sure it was Jo?"

If Sam said it was Jo, then it was Jo. "Yeah, I'm sure it was Jo. Wasn't too talkative though. This feels like a set up, Ellen. And the only one who knew we were in Connecticut was Jo. So either she's behind this or she ratted us out. Which one is it Ellen? I know, you said you can't control those people, but give me a break here. Who was it?"

She sighed. "I don't know." She said honestly, but she had a hard time believing that her daughter would be behind an attack on Sam. "I'll do some checking around here and see what I can come up with. I can't imagine she would turn on you. It just… I'm sorry Dean, I can't see it. Did something happen while you were on that job with her? Something that  
would set her off?" She was confused by all of this. Dean could occasionally come across like his father, but Sam? Sam was still a sweet kid. Why would she turn on Sam?

"Besides the fact that's how she says she feels close to her dad, and Mom comes and drags her back, not to mention then tells her how Dad died. How much did you tell her, Ellen? How much does she hate Winchesters right now? Enough to sell us out to the highest bidder? Enough to jump on the chance to be a hunter, even for the government?" Dean said.

"Dean, I'm gonna forget you said that. I didn't raise her to be like that. I didn't tell her to hate you boys, now calm down. You get somewhere safe, and you keep your head down. Check in with me… no I don't want you to tell me where you are. Cause I don't know who around here can be trusted and who can't right now. Your daddy made a lot of enemies in the community. Could be any one of them as easily as it could be Jo. If she did do this, Dean… I swear to god I don't have anything to do with it. I just hope she isn't caught up in it from just trying to join in on what you boys are doing."

"Yeah, well, let us know next time you get a postcard or call from her." Dean said, shaking his head. "I'll call you later." He still thought Jo was caught up in a government conspiracy to get at Sam. Missing psychics...

Sam would think he was being paranoid and delusional. But Dean still thought he was right. Or he had watched too many X-Files reruns in the hospital. Too early to tell, but caution was the word of the day as he crossed into Pennsylvania , avoiding anything that could even tentatively be labeled a 'main road,' looking over at his brother. How was he going to get him and Sam out of this one?

Sam moaned softly, and winced. The world was suddenly dark, and…vibrating? The car, how did he get to the car? He sat upright and looked around with wide eyes. How much of it was dream and how much of it was reality. "Where are we?" He asked, figuring that was safer than was it real or how did you get us out of that place He rubbed at his neck, it was still tender, a bruise forming at the injection site.

"Well, good morning sunshine." Dean said as he turned the radio down. "Back roads of Pennsylvania . Figure we'll drive for a while, lose them, before we pull over." He'd already checked the car over for any tracking devices last time he stopped for gas. And found one. Which pissed him off, they messed with his car, they messed with his brother. They deserved to die. Painfully and slowly. So he attached the tracking device to a nice old couple driving to Maine to see some lighthouses.

"So they didn't… we weren't… " Sam took a deep breath. "Told you Hooter's was a bad idea." He teased, mostly to ease his own tension. This situation was going to drive him insane. Things were supposed to calm down for them once the demons were sent back to hell, not ramp up. Although he supposed they were lucky they weren't found while they were in the hospital.

"Yeah, yeah." Dean said about Hooter's, shifting in his seat. He'd been too long on the road in one position. Nearly time to stop for gas. "So, you sure those nightmares of yours aren't visions after all?" Someone had to say it. Especially in light of what had happened. He stretched back and reached for the dart. His back cracked, making him sigh, damn that felt good, as he dropped the dart into Sam's lap. "Remember when we were, what were we? Twelve and sixteen, and Dad found the military depot and we loaded up on weapons, outside Arlington?" Weapons they  
would then modify. But Dad had been a Marine, he knew what to look for.

"No… I'm not sure." He said and looked out the window, swallowing hard. He would have to ditch his brother at some point. He couldn't let him be taken too, they were after Sam, not Dean. "Ahm… yeah I remember that trip." He said as he picked up the dart. "So this is the spike that was in my neck." He said looking it over. "Government issue. Great."

"Yeah that's what I said. Along with some rather blue words I'm not sure you're old enough to hear." Dean said with a quick grin. "So I don't know, coincidence that you saw Jo at the same time? Called Ellen, she couldn't give me a  
definitive indignant answer to that you know."

"She's not in any of my visions but that doesn't mean anything. Do you really think she would get involved with the government?" He asked frowning a little. "Hunters usually avoid the government agencies like the plague." He looked at the dart once more. "Not surprised Ellen didn't have an answer. She and Jo sort of remind me of me and Dad sometimes, ya know. Love each other but just can't stop butting heads. Probably cause Ellen is … pretty ahm…  
controlling. This could be some sort of all out rebellion."

"Why couldn't she just rebel and go to Stanford?" Dean grumbled. "I don't know, man, anything's possible. Could be trying to right things for her old man by going after us, in some warped way. We've seen more screwed up. Hell, we're more screwed up. Just gotta keep them off our tail until I figure this out."

"We…. till we figure this out." Sam said with a sigh. "They are after the psychics." He told his brother. "Trying to force us to use the abilities, as if they can … bully… " that sounded better than torture right? Dean was already climbing the walls over this shit, no need to make it worse. "Us into controlling something that normal desperation can't manage." He said and shook his head. He figured Dean was right about Jo but man, that was going to be hard on Ellen. At least when Sam had rebelled he hadn't betrayed anyone.

"So we lay low." Dean said. "Might head off into Canada ...man I hate Canada ." He said with a shake of his head. But there was no extradition treaty with Canada . And plenty of places to get lost and disappear into. "Anything else those dreams of yours tell you that might be of some use now?" He understood now why people smoked. He never smoked, but damn he could use a cigarette.

"Canada works." He said. He might not have to leave his brother then. Sam was obviously spooked. "Ahm… it's an older installation. It's not completely underground, some of the rooms had windows. The wire mesh filled kind." He leaned back in the seat. "I'm sorry man." He said. "Sorry I got you into this."

"You didn't get me into anything." Dean said. He wished Sam would stop saying shit like that. They were brothers, after everything else they'd been through, this should be a piece of cake, right? "But we're going to get out of this, all right. But you just had to top me. Couldn't stand me being on the FBI's most wanted list, so you had to go paint a target on your back for some secret government agency. Really, the jealousy is pathetic."

Sam had to laugh at that. "Yeah well, that's no excuse for starving me to death." He said shifting again in his seat. " Pennsylvania huh… ever thought about growing a beard and wearing funny clothes? Worked for Harrison Ford."

Dean laughed and pulled into a drive in, getting a couple of burgers, more coffee, and fries, tossing the bag back into Sam's lap. "There, can't have you starve to death or anything." He said. "And I'm not wearing a funny hat. I just...drove."

"You just don't want to be surrounded by girls who won't even think about putting out." He teased. "You need me to drive, looks like you've been at it a while." He said as he dove into the food. His last meal had been a while ago.

"I'm good until the next fill up." Dean said, which should be in about a half hour. Should give Sam time to eat at least. "And nothing wrong with having some reasonable expectations out there. It's completely unreasonable to go into an Amish community and expect to get laid. Though when I was in traction, I heard of this tradition they have, where they send the kids out at 18 into the big wide world to see if they're ready to be Amish. Bet some of those girls are ready  
to give it up, I mean they're out there to experience all the sin the outside world has to offer. I got a few sins I could show them."

Sam laughed at his brother. "I stand by my earlier comment. You're a perv." He said shaking his head. "Never figured you as hunting for a virgin though." He was amazed that he managed to actually eat the food. Normally he had an appetite worthy of three teenagers. Right now it was taking work to eat. But he was doing it. Dean would worry even more otherwise. "Dean… maybe we should split up… make it harder for them to find us." Not like he could tell his brother to ditch the car or anything else of that nature.

And in that moment Dean decided to never sleep again. "Forget it. I don't want to hear that again." Dean said. "Because if we split up, they could get the other and we'd never know. We're sticking together and we'll get through this and around this, whatever. Come on, we took on two Fallen and won. How can the US Government really be worse?"

"They're worse." Sam said with absolute certainty in his voice. "You were there in this last one… the one had while I was passed out. Dean… the only reason the are after you is me… I don't want to be responsible for something happening to you."

"Sam, forget about it. I mean it." Dean said with an edge to his voice. "You know, maybe they want me on my own merits, to clone some soldiers out of me, so they'll be really good looking with kick ass music taste and good choices in cars. Your visions don't tell you everything. If I was there, I was there for a reason. And if you go off, and you get caught, I'll have to get myself captured to find you."

"Damn it Dean, you just got out of the hospital, are you really that anxious to go back in? If they are after us they know what we are capable of … they won't be easy to get away from. I don't even know if we can get away from them."

"Of course we can." Dean said. "But we don't have to worry about that because we're not getting caught, and we're not separating and I'm not ditching the car. Next suggestion, Brainiac?" Dean said, trying not to be short tempered and frustrated. But what Sam was suggesting was unacceptable, and he was tired. He'd been driving too long, but now he was afraid to close his eyes.

"Fine." He said and sighed. "So where do we want to stay tonight? Guess we have to be a lot more picky about where we go now. Have to change our patterns. If Jo is part of it then she has told them everything she knows."

"We're not staying anywhere." Dean said, as much as his body screamed for a bed right now. "We're going to keep driving until, I don't know, we don't anymore." He was still working on that part. He didn't know exactly what Jo did or didn't know. So until he did, there would be no stopping. And if they didn't stop, Sam couldn't bolt. So he could work on that part as well.

"Dean, no. You can't handle that right now. You're not at 100 yet and you hauled my ass to the car. You need some place comfortable to sleep. We'll sleep in shifts." Sam said. He wasn't going to let Dean hurt himself over this. Over him. Not after all he had already been through in the last year.

"I'm fine. Don't go telling me what I can and can't handle. I've been driving for the past ten hours perfectly fine." Dean snapped and rubbed his temple with one of his hands. "If we do that, that means you can't leave in the middle of the night, you know. Can't decide that to protect me or some other misguided bullshit that you should leave in the middle of the night without me knowing. You know that, right?"

Sam sighed. "I won't leave in the middle of the night." He said, hating that he had to promise but he wasn't going to risk his brother's health right then. "Now let's find a hotel… maybe there's another out of the way nice-ish one. They won't expect us there." He frowned at Dean's look. "Demons are in theory better at tracking than humans. I don't think it  
would have mattered where we went." He had thought it too as soon as he had said it. "They won't expect us there." But it was sound logic when not dealing with supernatural blood hounds.

"Sounds good. We'll get a room with a jacuzzi." Ten hours sitting in one position...a jacuzzi with the jets aimed straight at his back sounded real good about now. "And a garage. If they can't see the car, they can't track it." He knew it would be smarter to ditch the car...but it would be inconvenient. All the weapons and gear were in the car. Not to mention, a 67 Impala could outrun and out maneuver most anything out there.

"Right." Sam said with a nod as he pulled out the lap top, and paused to check it out to make sure there was nothing on his computer. Running anti-virus and anti-spy ware programs that Ash had put together for him. He doubted anything was getting past those. Including government issue codes. This was the man that hacked the government for fun after all. Once that was taken care of, he started searching for hotels within 100 miles of where they were that fit the bill.

Dean drove until Sam found them a hotel, fairly upscale for them. But it would work. Had a garage and everything. Dean parked just out of sight of security cameras and definitely out of sight of the road and they headed into the lobby.

"Okay, so tell me what you found so far." Dean called from the bathroom. He definitely got a room with a jacuzzi. He thought after rehab he'd never want to see another one again (at least one without at least two hot girls in it) but man he was grateful for it as he eased his stiff beyond belief body into the hot water. As hot as he could stand it, and he turned the jets up on high. "I don't know, do you think we can trust Ash?"

Sam stood in the doorway and handed Dean a beer then opened his own. "I don't know." He said with a sigh. "Don't know who to trust anymore. I guess with Azazel out of the picture all the 'hide me' mojo is gone, Cause you know something had to be keeping all of the psychics off the radar some how. I don't think we ever completely trusted anyone but…he doesn't seem the type."

"Great." Dean said, holding the beer to his forehead for a moment. "So we did this really great thing for humanity and sent two fallen back to hell, and in doing so, managed to lift a veil off the psychics, getting us screwed in the process. Can't anything ever go right?" Then he looked at Sam. " Missouri . Call her."

Sam swore and dialed the number, it barely started its first ring when it was picked up. "I told you boys to come out here to Lawrence . Did you listen to me? No!" She said. "Since I am talking to you, I can assume you haven't been picked up by the men in black… or charcoal grey to be more precise."

"No, Ma'am but not for lack of trying on their part. You're okay out there though? No one coming for you or anything?" He asked.

"I'm not on their list, but you are, and all the other kids the demon had targeted."

"Ask her if there's been a blonde with the stooges." Dean said. Maybe Missouri could fill in the gaps that Sam's visions had. He stretched out in the tub and drank his beer, waiting for the stiffness to fade a bit to comfortably sleep. Sam got first watch. It was safe. With everything up in the air, he wouldn't break his promise.

Sam relayed the question and sank down to the floor as he got the affirmative answer. "Yeah… we know her." He said "She's Ellen's daughter. The woman that was helping us with the research on the demons. "

"That poor woman." Missouri said, somehow knowing Ellen didn't know, and it would hurt her deeply.

"Yeah well, poor Jo when Dean gets his hands on her. "

"Dean isn't going to hurt anyone, sweetie, especially not some misguided fool of a girl." She chuckled a little. "Doesn't mean he won't think about it a whole lot."

Dean watched Sam sink to the floor. "Son of a fucking bitch!" He swore. Oh he was going to yell at Ellen. Even if she knew nothing, dammit, he needed to yell at someone.

"Now you boys need to lay low." Missouri said. "They're headed up to Maine after you two, and that's as far as I can see." The government didn't expect to be outsmarted by Dean Winchester, who had barely passed high school, after all.

Mad as all hell, Dean grabbed a towel and got out of the tub, going over to his cell phone and calling Ellen. "It was her." Dean said with a deadly quiet tone in his voice. "And if I find her before you do, I just might kill her, Ellen."

"Right, so we stay away from Maine ." Sam said. "Not a problem. And believe me we plan to lay low." He looked over at Dean. "Hey, it's not Ellen's fault."

"God, Dean." Ellen said, the shock evident in her voice. "You're sure? I mean there is no chance that this is a mistake or a misunderstanding?" She asked hoping beyond all hope that Jo wasn't the traitor in their midst. Jo was all she had left.

"Misunderstanding? My brother got shot with a tranq in the neck. I really can't see the misunderstanding in that. Add in that psychics like Sam have been disappearing..." Dean shook his head. "We're low for now. Complete at ground." Let her think they were hiding out in a cave for all he cared right now. "But if I find her, Ellen, she's returning to you bruised. I don't care if she is a girl."

"Bruised I can handle." Ellen said. Hell she would probably add a few of her own once the girl got back. If she didn't shoot her herself. She thought she had raised her better than that. "Be careful." She said in a strangely hollow tone. She was losing her daughter completely now. Ash could be heard in the back ground. "What? No I'm fine. Yeah it was Dean but I lost the signal. No clue what's going on." She lied as she closed down the phone. If she couldn't trust her own flesh and blood, who could she trust?

Dean sighed and closed his own phone, sitting on the edge of his bed. "All right, all right." He said, putting the phone on the table. "We know who tipped them off. Doesn't help us much, but at least we know. And it's the psychics like you they want. So we're definitely dealing with a supernatural agency, not intelligence." Or they'd go after any psychic, they weren't too choosy. "So I'm going to go to sleep." He was still wired, but a few pills would take care of that. "You better be here in the morning."

"I'll be here, man, I promised, remember?" Sam said as he picked up a book. "The bad guys are headed to Maine , we aren't anywhere near there, it's all good." If there was another attempt however he would go. He wouldn't let his brother live his life on the run. It was insane. "So go ahead and take something for the pain, that I know is still there, and get some rest. Cause I can't promise to be awake long in the car so you'll need all the rest you can   
get."

"All right." He said with a chuckle as he pulled on a pair of boxers and folded the towel over a chair. "I can agree to that. Don't let me sleep too long, I mean it, we're out of here by ten at the latest." He said as he found his pain pills and popped a few. Stretching one last time, popping everything back into alignment, he curled up on the bed, knife under one pillow, gun under the other.


	2. Chapter 2

Sam stared out the passenger window at the passing miles "You know… we probably should…do something while we are running across the country. I feel like we dropped the ball somewhere." He admitted. The last few days had been nothing but driving and sleeping and only occasionally was that sleeping done in a hotel room. It made him feel guilty about the credit cards, guilty about everything. If it weren't for the fact that Dean knew exactly when to extract a promise from him, he would have been long gone by now. Something that he still considered an option.

Dean looked at his brother. "You're kidding?" Dean said. "You want to pull a job now?" He said, then thought about it. "Okay, you've got a point. I can see it. We should do something. All this driving senselessly is making me madder than a hatter. Okay, whiz kid, got anything of interest on your lap top we could hit while we're on ground?"

"I've been avoiding the internet actually. Thinking about getting a new laptop and all." Some of Dean's paranoia made sense. Sure Ellen would never betray them. She was old school. You didn't go outside the community with anything vaguely supernatural. Never to the government. But he couldn't be sure about Ash, or any of the others. Bobby he was sure he could trust, and Caleb. But they didn't know anything about computers. "Thought we could hit a library. They have internet access. "

"Aw man, a library? Place makes me itch." Dean said, just to give Sam a hard time as he found a library in town and gratefully got out of the car. There was, after all, such a thing as too much quality time with the Impala. Even Dean would admit that (under torture). "Okay, now remember. The librarians frown on porn surfing in public places. Give the word and I'll set up a distraction for ya."

"Dude, you make it sound like I live on porn sites." Sam objected. "Once… maybe… maybe twice tops. Give it a rest." He said as he opened the door and led the way inside. He found a computer and settled in.

"And the Playboy channel that one time." Dean added.

"It wasn't playboy, and it was once… Like you've never done it." Sam said.

"Yeah but … I actually get laid. It's weird to look at porn when you aren't getting it in real life." Dean teased.

"That's when normal guys usually look."

"Maybe, but you're not normal, Sammy. You're a freak"

"Jerk." Sam said with a smile and settled into the occult sites easily enough. "Where the hell are we anyway?" He asked.

"We are in..." And Dean had no idea, so he grabbed a pamphlet. "Hallock Minnesota ." Days of doing nothing but driving had taken them far to say the least. Not to mention some crossing of the US-Canada border just for good measure. "Huh, forgot we were even in the good ole U S of A."

"Okay… Minnesota … a lot of Norse stuff going on around here. Norse ghosts are nasty." Sam said, more than happy to think about Norse ghosts riding the ridge pole, hell he could get into a little Beowulf type action too. He could handle trolls. Even Fenris himself would be better than thinking about and running from his own government. Running from the one thing worse than what they had already been through.

"Oh yeah. Easily." Dean said. "Remember the vanir?' Sure that had been in Indiana , but Dean still ended up nearly sacrificed. Sometimes this job sucked. "Let's see if we can find anything not having anything to do with sacrifices for crops, huh?"

"What? Getting tired of being sacrificed to demons and pagan gods?" Sam asked with a smile. "Never would have happened if I had been there ya know." Sam said, and almost wished he hadn't. It would be real easy for Dean to use that as another excuse to keep him around when he should really be running for Dean's life as far away from him as he could get.

"Yeah it would have." Dean said with a chuckle. "You know me and my mouth. I just would have been untied quicker if you stayed put. Once in a while, I guess you do get your turn to save my ass." He said with a grin. "Once in a while. Gotta take a break sometimes you know. This hero thing is tiring."

"Yeah it is, but not as tiring as the vacations." Sam pointed out, and laughed at the look he got from Dean. There hadn't been any dreams in a while so he hoped that meant that they were changing that possible future now. "Okay, here we go… disappearances in the woods, 'bout a hundred miles from here. This goes hand in hand with a lot of sightings of over sized wolves. As in wolves the size of great danes." He pointed out because in spite of their reputations, in the canine world, wolves were pretty much midsized dogs.

"Well, Sammy, looks like we get to do some hunting after all." Dean said with a grin. "All right, let's go camp out in these woods and see what we find." It would be off road, which suited Dean just fine. Some...adjustments...had been made to the Impala. Off road was nothing she couldn't handle.

"Camping is definitely off radar. Let's go find a diner and have a real meal, then get supplies on our way out of town." Who knew how long a hunting trip like that could take? And at this point he didn't care, so long as it wasn't in a car, moving constantly. Traveling was one thing, being on the run was completely different. And that poor car had seen more miles in the two years he had been back, than any two cars its age combined.

"Sounds good. Eating something not heated in a mini mart sounds like luxury right now." Dean said as he waited for Sam to close down the computer screen and erase the history. Then they found a diner, and a quiet table far in the back, and ordered hot food they didn't have to heat themselves. "Oversized wolves, we should stock up on the silver just in case."

"Yeah it's either werewolves, or Dire wolves, or some sort of magician turning himself into one… god, why do I feel like I'm playing D&D again?" Sam said with a laugh. He had a limited experience with it in college. Never had much fun cause the folklore was definitely skewed with what he grew up with and was hard for him to get into because of it.

Dean gave Sam a look over his coffee. "Dungeons and dragons? Dude, you really are a geek." Dean said with a shake of his head as he started to write what they needed on a napkin. "Okay, silver...we can get that at a pawn shop and melt it down. We get there early enough, we'll have time to make the bullets." He kept making his list as he ate. Not stopping to tell Sam that Dean was right. The stiffness was resolving with each passing day. He was fine. This was nothing. This was a way of life.

"Yeah, well, I over heard this conversation in the student union one day about how to go about killing a werewolf. " Sam explained with a laugh. "Next thing I know I am sucked into this game for a couple of weeks until I just couldn't handle the discrepancies anymore… although it's funny, a lot of those kids had the right mind for the job. Just not the right physicality." He said. "So we should also pick up stuff for trip wires and alarms." He said since they weren't dealing with just spooks anymore. Salt and brick dust wasn't always going to be enough.

"Yeah we should." Dean said. That was the one advantage to being mobile in the car...harder to catch. But his baby needed a break and, well, so did he and Sam. He understood that. "Shouldn't be so hard, CVS probably doesn't know it sells all sorts of shit we can use for less that pure purposes." Improvisation was a skill both of them had mastered by the time they were each ten.

"And marshmallows." Sam said. "Maybe a little chocolate… box of graham crackers…" He had gone camping with one of his friends at college. One with a normal, almost too normal, family. But he had discovered the joys of smores, and hobo dinners and the terror of sleeping out in the woods without protections. He didn't know why he suddenly wanted that almost normal camping experience with his brother but he did.

Dean looked at Sam like he suddenly sprouted horns, but nodded. "Okay." He said, as if he were talking someone off a ledge. Speaking carefully. "We'll have smores." Then he shook his head and chuckled. "I can't believe I'm going to make smores. I hope you know how because I don't." He couldn't say anything really, about the smores, he was known for an addiction to M&M's.

"Yeah I do actually." Sam said with a grin. "Went camping with a friend of mine and his family. Did the whole campfire thing with the marshmallows and cooking out. And what the hell, we gotta at least give the appearance of being a normal campout if we want to get the attention of what ever it is. It's possible that the wolves aren't even connected."

"It's possible." Dean allowed. "Wouldn't surprise me." They'd gone on hunts and cases, and it ended up being something entirely different than their first hypothesis. "Okay, so we'll do smores, but I'm not singing around a campfire. Unless it's Led Zeppelin or something. And no ghost stories. I don't do shadow puppets either." He'd let his brother go with the normal thing if he wanted to, but Dean was laying ground rules.

"Oh god no.. no singing. Ghost stories sound too much like shop talk…although I think I did scare the guy's sister into nightmares with a couple I told that trip… good thing they didn't know they were real. I don't know… was thinking more of making it look like a hunting trip… something has to be in season right?"

"Yeah I suppose that can work. Would explain away the weapons and all." Dean said with a shrug. "Okay that works. We'll be nice and normal brothers on a hunting trip. Might even work too."

"Yeah… the hunting and brothers part is accurate enough." He said with a smile. "Should probably arrange for a license while we are at it. Just in case there are rangers. Last thing we need is anything going out on the wires cause we got picked up by the game warden or something."

"I've got the licenses already. After that wendigo hunt, I made it a point to have licenses like that available." not like they were going to use their real names anyway, so it wasn't a big problem, right? "Never hurts to be prepared, that's what dad always pounded into our skulls, right?"

"Repeatedly." Sam said as he finished his food. "Okay… we need an ice chest… I figure plan for 2 nights and go from there. Weather should hold for a while, so just sleeping bags and a campfire should be fine. "

"And beer. All good hunters bring beer, right?" Dean said with a laugh. "So we've got marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate, M&Ms, beer...guess we should pack real food, huh?" Dean said as he finished his food and laid down the money plus tip. "Okay, let's pick the shit up and get going." It was a hunt. A return to the normal existence for them. As much as he had once talked about giving it all up and just...being...he needed this right now.

"Meat… " Sam said with a nod. "Lots of meat I think is the norm in these situations. Definitely beer… and some bottled water." He said as he rose. There wasn't going to be a chance for them to ever just be. Sam knew that now. Even with their worst enemy defeated, there was another to take its place, one they could do nothing about but run. It was almost enough to push him over the edge.

"This is almost fun, you know." Dean said with a grin as they headed on foot for the nearest store to find all their supplies. This was a teeny tiny town, so they were able to find a good amount of it all in one general store, run by an old lady with faded eyes and a pleasant smile. Used to people, especially young men and veterans, passing through to test themselves against the outdoors.

"Yeah, I think you're right, it's gonna be fun out there." It was going to be good to be the hunter again instead of the hunted. Once up to the counter with their innocent looking wares, leading the list with the smores fixings, Sam gave her his best fluffy puppy college boy smile and said: "So, is there anything we should know about the woods out there?" He asked. "I bet everyone comes in and tells you their stories. "

"Oh dear, yes." The woman said. "Seems everyone wants to pit themselves against nature at least once in their life, absolve some primal need within themselves or something." She said as she rang through their supplies. "Lately though, you should be careful. I don't know if the nature is turning against us or not, but, it's silly."

"No it's not." Dean assured her. He could be good with the grandmotherly types as well.

"Well, it's just that lately, I don't know, the last year or so, they've seemed so dark. I spent my childhood in those woods, back in the day you could go out there and play without worrying about abductors or molesters. My father never locked the door at night. Now everyone's shuttered up tighter than a nun." She said with a laugh as she reminisced. "Now, some nights I wouldn't step foot outside my door after dark. But people go out into those woods every weekend, and they come back. I'm just an old woman prattling on. I don't mean to worry you boys, I'm sure you'll do fine."

"We had heard of the disappearances out there and didn't know if it was just rumor or if it were true." Sam said as he handed over the credit card. This was the sort of person they needed to go to in order to get the real story. The police and rangers would play it down, regular townsfolk would play it up, so he used his boyish charm to his advantage and milked her for information, while Dean carted the supplies out to the car.

He came out 15 minutes later and got into the car. "No real pattern to the disappearances, other than the phase of the moon, although she doesn't realize that. Thinks the full moon is only one day instead of three. Looks like we need to go pick up some silver. "

"Great." Dean said and made a show of carefully placing the supplies in the trunk, using the bags as cover as he checked his ammo. "Okay, I've got a silver dagger, ten silver arrowheads, and five clips of silver bullets. How much should we get from the pawn shop?"

"About 5 ounces total." Which was honestly more than it sounded like. "Might have time to melt those down into rounds out there. Course this means we have to be extra careful as well. The victims' gear has disappeared too, which says the guy knows what he is and is covering it up as well. "

"Great. A smart werewolf." Dean said with a roll of his eyes as he pulled up to a pawn shop and bought six ounces of silver jewelry. Six, just to be on the safe side. "Okay, so where did the lady say was the best place to go? Because then we'll go to the worst." She was grandmotherly, of course she'd try to steer the friendly campers to a nice safe place.

Sam pulled out the map. "Here," he said, indicating a place circled in sharpie, "is where she suggested we go. It's an alright looking location but over here really looks like prime camping real estate. Close to the river, far enough from the road to be secluded without being a huge hike. "

Dean gave his brother a patient look. "Dude, I can do a huge hike." He said. "But that looks good. We can use the river if we have to." It felt good to hunt, instead of run. He'd never realized how much he needed the job until he was running from everything, trying to stay one step ahead of The Man.

Sam laughed. "Yeah, you can but how many campers do you think really can? Or would with all their gear. We're not supposed to look like the real deal you know." He shook his head. "You're still over sensitive."

"I'm not over sensitive, you're still hovering." Dean said. And in his own way, Sam was. He could see it behind the comments Sam would make from time to time. That Dean didn't 'need' this so soon from the hospital. Well, crap on that. He was in it for the long haul.

"We're living in your car, dude, breathing looks like hovering after this long." Sam countered. "And I was seriously not thinking about your health. Besides, how far do you want to be from Christine? She might get lonely without you."

"But she'll probably enjoy the time without you." Dean replied. "And stop calling her Christine. God you have such a fixation with my car." He said as he started driving out of town toward the woods, finding a pair of tire tracks and following them to the river.

Sam got out and started to setup camp. He relaxed in degrees as he worked. This was normal. Well, it was normal for a Winchester . They were working again. They were in control of their lives again, even if only for a few days. Even if only in their own fevered imaginations, they were back in control, and it was the thing in the woods that should be afraid, not them.

The tense sort silence faded into a comfortable quiet as he started to gather firewood. He made a point not to call out to Dean to see if he were alright. He kept an ear out for any sign that he wasn't. He was driving his brother nuts and he knew it but with everything they had been through, and everything that is vision said was to come he was afraid he was going to lose his brother. Dean was all he had left. Even his dreams were gone now and hadn't been replaced by new ones. Hunting was supposed to be his present and his future, not being the hunted, not watching his brother suffer.

And with those simple thoughts the tension returned.

Dean was fully relaxed. The physical exercise felt good after so long in a car. He set the traps and the alarms and the trip wires with steady, sure hands, his joints barely cracking anymore. It was after noon, so the sun was still out, and it was warm in the small clearing they'd found.

Now this was how he had envisioned the rest of his life. Not necessarily being some weirdo back to nature conservationist. Just being outside, moving around, doing the hunt. With his brother. Yup, that's what he had seen when he had tried to envision the future.

"Hey Sammy." dean called out, keeping an eye on Sam. He was, of course, far more practiced at doing it covertly than Sam.

"Yeah?" Sam called back as he set up the fire pit. Someone else had done the hard work on it before they had arrived. It was apparently a well used camp site. "Whadda ya think? Make something to eat, melt down the silver and catch a nap before the moon rises?"

"Now that sounds good." Dean said, bringing over the firewood he had collected. "But I was thinking you might want to go read my car a bedtime story, since you're so concerned for her and all. Good night moon maybe. Or the blue book."

"I don't do bedtime stories. Besides, I would hate to come between you and your girlfriend. " He told him as he got out the tin foil and started to prepare the hobo dinners. "You know, we should do the whole camping out thing more often. At least while the weather holds. Harder to trace than hotels. "

"That's true. Cheaper too." Dean said with a laugh. "Tell you what? If we don't get eaten this time out, we'll do it again. After all, getting eaten is a serious deterrent to any sort of repeat activity. Maybe, if things are quiet, we'll go to a bar, see if anyone, preferably cute, single, female and stacked, want to come with us."

"Now that sounds like a plan." He said as he set the packets aside waiting for the fire to heat up enough to work like an oven. Meanwhile he set up the equipment to deal with the silver. "Buck shot or regular rounds?" He asked.

"No fooling around with buckshot." Dean said. They couldn't afford to get hurt, even under aliases. Government probably had their pictures in every hospital across the country. He missed his follow up appointment in New Orleans (intentionally, even before this mess he hadn't planned on keeping it) and wondered w hat his doc thought about him now.

That wasn't the only reason they couldn't afford to get hurt, not when dealing with a werewolf. It was almost more of a mutual hunt with that kind of shape shifter. But it was different than running from your own kind. Sam nodded and took out the molds for regular rounds, and got the silver to melting. "I'm looking forward to sleeping in something that isn't moving."

"You and my car have some serious issues. I think you need to work through them." Dean said lightly as he prepared the water to cool off the rounds and started setting up different weapons. This was definitely camping, Winchester style. But Sammy would have his smores at least.

"I don't have issues with the car, I recognize the car for what it is, that's all. You however have this delusion that it's part of the family." Sam poured the silver into the molds and set it aside to cool. Then pulled their dinner out of the fire with the tongs. "The original TV dinners." He said dropping one on a paper plate and handing it over to his brother. "Minus the TV of course." He added.

Dean chuckled. "It IS part of the family." He countered as he unwrapped his packet. "And TV sucks anyway. Nothing really on. Trust me, I spent eight months trying not to watch the fucking thing. Avoided enough Oprah to last a life time. And they should rename the Sci-Fi network the Comedy Network, and the Comedy Network TV for Insomniacs network. Still gotta find that fabric softener bear though."

"Yeah, it's pretty insipid. Jess loved that bear though." He said with a grin, this time without the overwhelming sadness behind it. He missed her. He loved her desperately. But she was gone, and he had finally come to terms with that. Death wasn't the horror that it had been to him before. He figured she was in heaven with his parents hearing all the embarrassing stories from his youth and sharing those that she had. She would be waiting when it was his time. It was okay now. "She had these slippers that had that bears head on them, you know like bunny slippers only snuggle bear slippers."

Dean shook his head at his brother as he ate. "And you let them into your house? That's how they work, they look all cute and then you wake up and they're eating your face. Demonic, I tell you. That bitch is the next thing to go down." Dean said. "I figure if we can take on two fallen, a conglomerate the size of that snuggle bear thing is no problem. So we dust the werewolves, then we go after the bear, pick up some girls..." Dean looked up. "Eyes peeled. Moon's rising."

"Dude, no wonder you can't keep a steady girl." Sam said, pulling his weapons closer. He was listening for any sounds that might come all the while keeping up the illusion of being on a camp out. They didn't know how intelligent the wolf was after all. "You gotta accept a certain degree of cute in the world. After all… you hate the smurfs and I noticed you didn't have any trouble ogling my girl when she was wearing them."

"I wasn't ogling the Smurfs." Dean said with a chuckle and a waggling of eyebrows. Hey, his brother's girlfriend had been hot, what could he say? Besides, it was a compliment besides. "Cute had nothing to do with it." He was loading the cooled bullets into different guns.

"Oh." Sam said in playful indignation. "Haven't seem me in years and what do you do? You break in, start a fight AND stare at my girlfriend's breasts. Nice. Such brotherly love." He laughed a little as he double checked the knife he carried to make sure it was the right one. You didn't want to take a knife into a werewolf fight, but at the same time if it landed on top of you… you might as well take it with you.

"Hell yeah that's brotherly love." Dean said with a chuckle as he checked the traps and alarms. Salt was hit and miss with werewolves, after all. And didn't affect people at all, more's the pity. "And I told you, I was looking for a beer. And you started the fight." Well, not really. but a case could be made that because Sam hadn't turned on the lights, he was protecting himself. Even if he had broken in and all...twisted logic, but he'd make it work. He usually did.

"Dude, you broke into my apartment, what did you expect me to do? You were lucky you didn't wind up eating rock salt." He said. Although he usually kept the guns completely hidden away. They had made Jess uncomfortable. It had been a weird sort of compromise. He could keep them, they just had to be where they couldn't be used. Not like he could explain why to her.

"Your locks sucked." Dean said with a shrug and straightened up when he heard a howl. The moon was up, if there was something in the area that was going to change, now would be the time it would do it. "And you had no beer. What kind of place were you living in?"

Sam pulled on his jacket. "We had just been out partying. I didn't think to buy beer at the store on the way home from the bar. Sorry." He said with a laugh. He loaded his pockets with extra clips. He looked to Dean. "Leave it to you to show up around Halloween." He grinned as he remembered Jess's little naughty nurse outfit. Somehow she had even made that look almost innocent. "And the locks aren't my fault. They were designed to keep normal people out, not the FBI's most wanted. "

"I wasn't the FBI's most wanted then." Dean said with a chuckle. "Just my kid brother's most missed. Damn, we gotta sit here and wait to be taken out like sheep, don't we? This is the most passive aggressive hunt I've been on in a while."

"I don't know… we could go looking for firewood or something equally mundane… " He suggested. "Other wise, yeah we are sitting here and waiting for the wolf." He didn't like that thought process either.

"All right." Dean said, standing up and balling up his aluminum foil. "We'll go looking for firewood. That sounds helpless enough. You really think we look helpless?"

"Hell no, but who knows what this wolf thinks of as helpless, if it thinks while its on the hunt at all." Sam said as he made sure the fire was safe for them to leave. Last thing they needed was a werewolf, AND a forest fire. He rose slowly and looked around. "The howl came from that direction."

"Then, obviously, as stupid clueless Regular Joe campers, we better head in that direction." Dean said with a grin as he stowed weapons on himself. Why did Winchesters, as a rule, wear layer upon layer? More places to hide/stash/hold weapons.

Sam grinned. "Yeah I think that would be a great direction to go hunting for fire wood in." He said and secreted a few of his own. It wasn't long before they were traipsing through the woods making enough noise to rouse their father from his grave… again… and trying to look inept and out of their depth without getting themselves hurt, and keeping an eye on their surroundings.

Sam made chitchat. The word seemed appropriate for the pointless conversation that came out of his mouth. Anything to keep the noise up and look like they weren't paying attention to anything else. He spoke about Tulane and his entrance interview, how the dean of admissions reminded him of Alfred Hitchcock. He talked about the law firm where he had been working and the paralegal that looked right up Dean's alley. Never really thinking about the fact that he had neglected to tell Dean most of this. He had thought it would adversely affect his brothers recovery if he thought he was going on with his life.

Dean shook his head. "Dude, you should have told me." Dean said. "We coulda stayed in New Orleans then, you know. It was all right. Besides, not like there weren't perks in it for me, you did say the paralegal was hot, right?" He said. Eight months and not one word from Sam about this.

"No. It's not you to stay in one place. " Sam said firmly. "Besides, all that would have done is made me an easier target so forget about it. I shouldn't have said anything. I wasn't thinking. I was just rambling." He paused and his brows furrowed, eyes darting in the direction he had heard the sound come from.

"Still..." Dean said and fell silent, eyes following the same trail as his brother's. Hands loosely at his side, deceptively so, the silver blade within reach if he needed it. Which he suspected he would. Sometimes just the merest glint of silver was enough to make a werewolf roll over and play dead. Survival, after all.

"Dean… that isn't my dream anymore. I was just testing the water. But it didn't feel the same. It didn't matter any more." He didn't know if that was because that part of his life had died with Jess, or if it had never been anything more than rebellion to begin with. A Winchester as a lawyer? Who was he kidding? Especially now.

The wolf crept in low to the ground, watching the brothers as they talked. Watching and waiting for the opening it needed. It could feel their pulse, could hear their breathing even from where he sat in the underbrush.

Dean shrugged with a sigh as his eyes cut to the left. Hunters developed senses on when they were being watched. That's how they stayed alive. They were being watched. So he tipped his head to the left a bit to alert Sam to what he felt. "Your choice." Dean said. "but when we get this whole mess cleared up we'll figure something out for you."

"By the time we get this sorted out I may decide that what I want is a vacation. Somewhere not here. " He said giving an almost imperceptible nod, preparing for the attack to come, moving a little further away from his brother. "Some place warn, that you have to get to by boat. "

"What I say about that 'v' word?" Dean shot back as the werewolf came streaking out of the underbrush, barely missing the brothers as they dodged.

"Then I guess we just keep working and not worry about it." Sam said as he drew his pistol and leveled it in the direction the wolf had gone. "Cause if we aren't working, we are vacationing." He started to cautiously walk toward where the wolf had gone.

"Vacations are evil. They're for middle class schmucks who are actually just using it for an excuse to go to a strip bar." Strange logic, but it worked for Dean. "We don't need an excuse to go to a strip bar." He checked the clip in his gun and followed after his brother. "But this...this is good."

"Yep." Sam said and paused, listening to the world around him. He closed his eyes to orient himself to the sound then nodded in that direction before moving over a little to the right of it, knowing Dean would take the left so that they could flank the creature.

The wolf didn't hunt alone.

She wasn't like other werewolves. She wasn't a mindless hungry beast in search of blood and death. She wasn't the sort that destroyed those closest to them because they happened to be there when the first full moon struck. No she was different. She knew what she was, was very much aware within her furry body. And she didn't hunt alone.

She smelled the gun oil, fresh, clean, from weapons that were used and cleaned often. She smelled the young men, could almost taste them from that scent. She salivated, breathing in deeply in anticipation.

But then they moved contrary to their pointless brotherly conversation. They moved as though they were hunter not pray and the wolf swore, and it came out as a low many syllabled growl.

Her partner moved, hampered by height, two legs, and limited senses that came from being human. However the partner carried a gun. She thought that evened the playing field.

Dean moved off to the left, keeping his posture loose, as if he were really looking for firewood, instead of something to shoot. Eyes cutting in the darkness to the underbrush, behind trees. This was one sneaky stealthy son of a bitch. He hated when they got like that. He was in the mood for a quick kill actually. As much as he enjoyed the hunt, sometimes he just wanted some instant gratification.

He didn't see the werewolf. He saw the partner. And figured it was a Fed. Because that would be his luck. So he raised his gun at him. "Put the gun down now." He hissed. He didn't have time for this.

Once Dean turned his attention to her mate, the wolf leapt from the brush with a loud angry snarl, every intent of shredding Dean before he had a chance to shoot. The sound of Canine fury was punctuated by pistol fire, and a strangled cry of pain. The creature landed at Deans feet thrashing in agony.

Dean backed away from bared claws and teeth and shot it a few times in the head. To put it out of its misery. Then turned his attention back to the man. "I said put the gun down, don't make me make you." Knowing Sam was now on the periphery to do just that. They knew each other's moves as well as their own on a hunt. Made things easier, to say the least.

The man cried out in anguish as the wolf began to revert to its human form. He shot wildly, first at Dean even though he missed wildly the shot ricocheting off a rock. He turned as Sam approached from the side and fired again, and again aiming now where in specific, screaming all the while.

Sam went down curling around his leg, choking off a cry of his own as the burning pain shot through him.

"Sam!" Dean said and went over to psycho guy. He was easy to disarm, as long as you stayed away from the gun. Getting the gun, Dean head butted him for good measure. "Almost done here, Sammy." Dean said as he started to tie the guy up. "You with me? And you," he said to the gun wielding man, "are an asshole."

"You killed my wife you son of a bitch." He swore at Dean struggling against the ropes.

"Yeah I'm with you… Just my leg. I think it went clean through." Sam managed to spit out through gritted teeth. Damn this hurt like hell, and there was nothing they could do about it right then. Thankfully they had supplies back at camp and for the first time he thought he might be glad that the bullet had exited as well as entered.

"Wife? Man you are one messed up puppy." Dean said with a shake of his head. "She was a killer. Using the fact that she gets hairy and even bitchier as an excuse to go slaughtering innocent people. And you are an accessory, and just as bad as her. Get some pressure on that leg. We'll get it wrapped once we figure out what to do with him."

"Hell if I know what to do with him." Sam said getting his belt off and using it to tourniquet his injured leg. "Humans aren't my thing. Not even the psycho ones."

"Great." Dean said. They weren't his thing either. And things were complicated now. But he still wasn't the murderer the Feds were calling him.

"I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch." The man growled and Dean pistol whipped him.

"Careful how you talk about our mother." He said as he paced. "Okay, we can't leave him here, I don't want to kill him either."

"Well it's not like we can take him with us." Sam said as he sat up a bit. "We have enough going on as it is. " He slowly pushed himself up onto his feet and hobbled over to his brother's side "Let's get the wolf taken care of for now." He said eyeing the man suspiciously. What sort of man willingly lived with the monsters? Willingly helped them? Then again, he had been victim to human monsters before. Probably would be again if his visions were at all accurate.

"Yeah, I'll think of something." Dean said with a sigh as they gathered firewood. "Had to go hunting. Never thought there would be people hunting back, did ya jackass?" Dean said with a shake of his head. "So you and her are the ones to blame for this. Had enough of your reign of terror." It was disconcerting that she had reverted back to human form, she had been pretty, but he just reminded himself that it was really just an illusion. She had been a blood thirsty beast hell bent on slaughter as he and Sam picked her up and threw her on the fire.

"You think you know how things are but you don't." The man scoffed, tears welling in his eyes as he watched the love of his life engulfed in flames. "You don't understand shit. You buy into that crap about some god giving Adam dominion over the earth and her creatures and you think that applies to you. That humanity is the top of the food chain, but the truth is you're nothing more than cattle and that's all you've ever been. Meat for the beast. You develop enough to see what's actually around you and think you have the right to stop it. You don't, you hypocritical little bastard. "

"You should have stuck to cattle." Dean said with a shake of his head. "The real kind that goes moo. And stayed away from beings that put up missing posters, and launch murder investigations. You're a real idiot, you know that?" He'd dealt with supernatural creatures that didn't prey on humans. Like that band of vampires, they went after cattle, which was fine by him. He didn't REALLY need the work.

"People are sheep for the most part. Just you select few that sniff out who the real predators are that make it hard on the rest of you. "

Sam looked at Dean, this guy wasn't including himself in the human race any longer and he was starting to creep him out. What were they dealing with? Was this another monster to kill? Or just a guy under the wrong woman's spell so long that he stopped having his own identity.

Dean grabbed the restrained man and slammed his back against a tree. "What the hell are you?" Dean demanded.

"You're the one with all the answers, you figure it out." The man said in a low hissing tone. "Don't think I'm going to make it easy on you, do you?"

"Was kinda hoping. I'm getting a headache." Dean said. "Sam. What kind of creature willingly mates with a werewolf then follows after her like her own personal little bitch?" He asked. Sam had spent more time reading Dad's journal than him, since Dean mostly drove whenever possible.

He slipped free of his bonds in that moment and lunged for Dean, a row of jagged sharp teeth exposed.

"Dean!" Sam called out in warning, unable to move quickly enough to stop the creature from attacking his brother. He pulled the blade from his belt and tossed it to Dean hoping it would do some good while he hobbled as quickly as possible over to the shotgun It was a vampire, a frigging vampire! Who the hell thought of the screwed up relationship between a vampire and a Werewolf!! Well they both mated for life so he guessed it wasn't entirely… okay yes it was entirely freakish but so was everything else in their lives.

Dean caught the knife. "So not in the mood for this, dude." Dean said as he slammed the knife into the vamp as quick as he could to give himself some leverage. He needed to cut the son of bitch's head off, but this would work for now. He didn't want to get bit after all.

Sam managed to get there and slammed the rifle butt into the vampires head, giving it two targets instead of one. He kept hitting it until the damned thing slumped and Dean managed to get it pushed off of him. Sam flipped the rifle around and shot it once in the head. It wouldn't kill it but it might keep it stunned for a minute.

"Thanks." Dean said as he started to saw at its neck. It ceased being a 'he' in Dean's mind the moment it tried to eat him. Sam kept reloading and shooting to keep it stunned as Dean worked. Finally, they threw the remains in the fire. "Great." Dean said. "Okay, let's look at that leg." They had to make sure the bodies burned completely, there could be no trace. Especially not now.

"Any time." Sam said and groaned as he settled down on the nearby fallen tree and straightened the leg out for Dean to look at. "I lose more jeans this way. Although usually it's not from getting shot."

"The job can be rough on the wardrobe." Dean said with a chuckle as he tore Sam's pant leg to get a better look at it. "Okay, it's through and through. Guess we'll just wrap it, and you get to stay off it." Wouldn't be hard, they'd just drive. Though Dean hoped their stash of antibiotics was still good.

"Right now I want to get back to camp and warm up… have a few marshmallows and sleep in something not moving until sometime tomorrow… preferably late." Sam said. There was no reason for the feds to know where they were. No reason to expect an ambush in the dark. He liked the idea of just being able to sleep for a change.

Dean gave a patient, teasing sigh. "Fine, you can have your marshmallows." He said as he helped his brother up. The bodies had finally burned completely, leaving nothing but scorched earth in their wake. "We'll recharge our fire, and make your smores." Though sleep did sound good, and all disloyalty aside, it might be nice to sleep on something that didn't move. Especially the way Sam drove.

Sam let Dean help him up and found something he could use as a walking stick on the way back to camp. Clearing it of bark would give him something to do while they waited. "Dean… it's melted chocolate and marshmallows. You're going to love it. Won't want anything sweet for a month, but you'll love it." He looked over at his brother. "So that conversation we were having when the wolf showed up…"

"Strip bars? Sammy, I'm surprised at you. Finally getting some assurance that I did in fact raise you right." Dean said with a chuckle as he dumped more firewood on the fire and poked at it until he was rewarded with nearly a back draft of flame sprouting up.

"That's not what we were talking about." Sam said as he got out the antibiotics first. They were out dated, he hadn't had a reason to get more while dean was in the hospital, but he took them anyway and said nothing to his brother about it. They would probably still work, and no sense freaking Dean out about it.

"Yes it was." Dean said. "You mentioned vacation, and I said vacations were excuses normal people used to go to strip bars, and we don't need an excuse. I bet we could find a strip club with a poltergeist if you're that interested."

"Yeah, but that wasn't really what we were talking about. We were talking about Tulane." Sam said as he set out the graham crackers and placed the chocolate over them. He would have to use sticks to roast the marshmallows on but that didn't take long to prepare as he waited for Dean to comment.

"Dude, what do you want me to say?" Dean said with a shrug as he pulled the beers out of the cooler and handed on to Sam. "I mean, again, you gave up your life dream to go on a fucked up supernatural road trip with your weird ass brother. All you could say when you were a teenager was that you couldn't wait to leave all this shit behind, and twice now you've turned your back on your big chance to. I just, I don't know, I just don't understand it."

"The first time… it was because of Jess. " He admitted. " This time… Dean… it's not my dream anymore. I don't want you thinking I gave up anything for you. Cause I didn't. Selfish as that sounds. And wow it sounds really selfish when I say it aloud." He put the first s'more together and handed it to his brother, moving on to toast the next marshmallow. "I don't think I gave anything up either time really. Cause…school was something I had to do. Law school was just more school. I could put all this on hold because I wasn't done with school yet, if that makes any sense… if it makes sense to you. I'm scared cause I don't even really understand it. " He said with a sigh. "Then I met Jess, god she was everything… Life was… it was quiet with her." Sam said. "I should have known it was the calm before the storm. But I didn't. Not even when the dreams started. If Mom had that effect on Dad, I can understand why he went crazy when she died. I know I said it was the interview I had to get back to but it was her. "

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I can see that." Dean said. The closest he'd ever come was Cassie, and things were never quiet with her. "I just don't want to be part of any of that decision making, because it's not fair to lay that on me. I could go on a major angsty mopey trip, you know, my brother was just shot by a vampire mourning the loss of his werewolf wife because he felt he couldn't leave me alone for extended periods of time or something." Though, in his whole life, he'd never been alone for extended periods of time. He was born, and his mother and father were there. Then Sammy was there. Then it was Sammy, him and their dad. Most of the time, it was him and Sammy. Then it was him and his dad. Now it was him and Sam again.

"Dean… I made the decision that I wanted to make, for the reasons I wanted to make it. Yeah it involved you, but it wasn't all about you. You're all I have left now Dean, I cant very well make decisions without including how its going to effect you. When I went to Tulane… I didn't know if you were going to be able to walk out of the hospital. " he admitted "Figured I might need something stable, something to keep me in one place. Take care of us both for a while."

"Sam." Dean said, shaking his head. He wasn't used to NOT being in the caretaker position. "Well, ended up moot anyway. With the government after you and all. They must want the super secret you carry, you know, how you make your hair so darn fluffy."

"Dude, so not fluffy." Sam said as he put his own s'more together and started to eat it. Not something he wanted often. Hell he hadn't thought of them in years but it was a normal thing And he wanted normal memories of his brother, wanted them to have something other than running and fighting to remember if the worst happened and Sam was captured.

"You're fluffy." Dean said with a laugh as he ate his own smore. "Okay, I think we can skip dinner. Beer and smores. Hey, remember when you went through that phase where all you would eat was Lucky Charms and Coke? I think you never out grew it, it just...transmuted."


	3. Chapter 3

Sam crawled into his sleeping bag and downed a lortab for the pain in his leg, he figured he would be alright the next day. The car was near by and there would be lots of driving. He would just have to stretch out in the back seat for most of the day was all.

He frowned as he shifted uncomfortably in the sleeping bag and all but screamed feeling something moving down around his feet and was out of the sack in a split second.

He reached inside and found the exceptionally wiggly rubber snake in the bottom of the sleeping bag. "Deeeeean!" He fairly roared. Only to be rewarded with a cackle of laughter from the campfire. "Oooh you don't want to start this. " He said "Super glue… all I'm sayin'." He said as he crawled back into the bag.

"Bitch!" Dean yelled back to him.

"Jerk!" He called out in return and lay his head on the pillow and closed his eyes.

"_Now Mr. Winchester, the more you resist the longer this is going to take." The voice came from a man in a lab coat. Sam could only assume this was another doctor. There were so many and he wasn't able to keep his head clear enough to remember names and faces. Between the drugs and the pain he could barely remember his name. He would have told him not to call him that, Mr. Winchester was his father, but he didn't want the bastard getting personal with him. He didn't want him to say Sammy… they always said Sammy. He laughed a little and turned away. They had tortured him in so many ways and he was worried about being called by his given name. Just another of life's screwy ironies. _

_He tried to pull his head away as they attached the equipment. He knew what was coming next and he closed his eyes, fighting the fear, the hopelessness that filled him. It was never going to end. He was already starting to hyperventilate and didn't care. Didn't bother with the sarcastic come backs. He wasn't Dean, they didn't roll off of his tongue with ease. Especially not when he was in pain. Not when he was afraid, and oh god was he afraid. Had been constantly in fear since they had brought him here. Not that he had any idea how long ago that had been. There was no daylight, no clock, no window on his … cell. If you could call it that. It was more of an over sized closet. Enough room to stand up when ordered to get out of his bunk, which happened at irregular intervals. _

_He was so tired. So very tired. He couldn't do this anymore, couldn't take this anymore. He used to pray _for_ escape, now he prayed to die. The injected something into his IV (his third injection site, he had blown the veins in two others struggling against them. He had learned not to do that anymore) and a sob escaped him as the burning sensation started again. He screamed as the pain increased in his head, almost blinding him with its intensity and things started to fly around him._

"_Very good, Mr. Winchester, very good." The doctor said, making notes and barely dodging a sharps container as it flew past his head. _

"_Please stop." Sam managed to get out. "Please make it stop." He sobbed. _

Dean woke up and shook his brother awake. "Come on." He said, breaking camp fast.

A nightmare with Sam usually meant a vision. And a vision now usually meant the

government. "Sam, come on!" He said, pausing to shake his brother again. "We're leaving, and getting far away from here." He rolled up his sleeping bag, doused the fire, packed up the cooler, shook Sam again, and took down the tent where they'd stored their weapons. And shook Sam again.

_Even as he cried, screamed in pain the doctor continued his work, making notes on a chart, before adding something else to the IV drip. "Once we are done with this session I want it taken down for an MRI, obviously the drugs are having an effect on his abilities. He has shown marked improvement under stress, I think if we continue this track, we'll see the full extend of his abilities soon." _

"_I'm not sure we could control him if he is anymore powerful than we have seen here." _

"_That is what the brother is for. We should go ahead and pick him up after this series of tests I want to see what he will do if the pain isn't his own."_

"_Yes sir… sir? Doctor?" The assistant asked, his voice raising in panic as the senior scientist was slammed into the wall by an invisible force, and pushed steadily upward until he was on the ceiling right above the table where Sam lay physically immobile. _

"_No one touches my brother." Sam growled as the first droplet of blood dripped down. _

Dean sat his brother up and shook him like a rag doll. "Sam!" He yelled right in his brother's face. "Sam, dude, we don't have TIME for this!" Then he held his brother with one hand wound in Sam's shirt and started backhanding him. Pinching already hadn't worked. Shaking and yelling wasn't working, and Sam needed to snap out of this. Soon. As in now.

Sam came too with a growl of rage more than fear this time and pulled away from his brother, who was at the same time shoved away from Sam by an invisible force. He pressed against a near by tree, trying to reconcile the two images superimposing themselves one over the other. Which time was real? Which was the dream? It was impossible to tell at this point. His future self had dreamed of this so often, dreamed of the last time they had spent together just having fun. Which was the dream now?

Dean landed on his ass when he was shoved, remembering belatedly that his psychic brother had exhibited some telekinesis in the past. "Dude, you use your Jedi mind powers on me one more time, I'm seriously going to kick your ass." He said as he got up and held out a hand to Sam to get him up. "Come on, we've gotta book."

Sam looked at his brother in confusion, still not entirely out of the fugue state. "Dean? How did… where did… ??" His head still pounded, he could still feel the fire in his veins even though it was fading by degrees.

Dean sighed patiently. "We're camping. Werewolf hunt. Over and done with. You had a vision, didn't you? So how about we split and you can catch up in the car?" Dean said, getting his brother up. He'd get him settled in the Impala and they'd be off. Everything in their campsite was easily portable. That was the point of camping, wasn't it? "Come on, Sasquatch." This was the role he was comfortable in.

Sam got up slowly and grabbed all that he could carry and started hobbling toward the car. He was still confused. Still thinking in terms of this being the past but that started to fade. It made him worry that he was having trouble, that he couldn't distinguish future/past from present. He slid into the back seat and fished through the first aid kit for another dose of antibiotics. His leg hurt more than he thought it should, it felt warm as well. "Dean… Did I do that ? Did I really move you?" He had never been able to move things like that… not in this time frame. His future self had done that sort of thing. Oh god… he had killed someone Sam opened the door and puked out the side, before Dean could respond or start the car. He had killed a man… like the demon.

"Yeah, you really moved me." Dean said as he slid behind the wheel in time to see Sam puking his guts out. "Must be the smores." Dean commented, starting the car when the door closed. "Seriously, Sam, it's not like you've never moved anything before. We should have known it was coming. Like Dad's startle reflex if we tried to jolt him awake."

"You don't understand." Sam said as he picked up the bottled water and took a long drink before explaining the vision to him. "I didn't know which me I was, Dean, and if I was moving you that strongly… I think I woke up as… you know… then not now. I know it doesn't make sense but I am starting to think the future me is trying to escape back to here and it's messing with me." Although what was genuinely messing with him was how he had killed the doctor, looking up at him pinned to the ceiling like a fly, like Jess…

"I think it's less science fiction if its just your subconscious pushing your...abilities...because of what's happening. A form of protection I guess. Since we can't exactly lay down a sigil and some salt for Feebs." Dean said.

"Oh yeah, cause science fiction is so much harder to believe than demonic possession." Sam

said with a frustrated growl. "I don't know… maybe we should get out of the country and stay out. They were going after you… I can't let that happen because of me. " He said as he shifted uncomfortably in the seat of the car.

"Sam, stop it." Dean said as he drove. "I mean it. Nothing's going to happen to me because of you. I am capable of making my own choices you know. But Mexico sounds good...nice and warm. Lots of senoritas just waiting for the Winchester charm..."

"We have an extradition treaty with Mexico ." Sam stated as he stared out the window. "And you aren't the one with visions, Dean. You can't promise me this wont hurt you." He had seen it. Had seen Dean there in the previous vision. Had heard the warning in the latest one that they would take him and hurt him, for no other reason than to see what the effect would be on Sam. He had watched Dean being tortured before, he couldn't do that again.

"Okay, Canada then. Shorter drive anyway." Dean said. "And I mean it, just stop it. We'll fix this. I promise. Okay? Just stop with the doom and gloom, it's like giving up."

Sam nodded, not promising anything. "I'm tired Dean." He said as he curled up, wincing as he bent his injured leg. "It's hard to shake it… hard to come back to now when …" He shook his head. "The visions are too vivid. I'm not seeing them… I'm living them."

"That's why you've got me, to bitch slap you back to reality." Dean said as he adjusted the rear view mirror to keep an eye on Sam. "How's that leg? Are those antibiotics even any good?" Sam had hoarded them to himself, he hadn't been able to check the dates on them yet.

"It feels like I got shot." Sam said with a faint smile and stuffed his pillow against the car door and closed his eyes. He wasn't going to answer Dean's question about the antibiotics. He would be fine, and they couldn't afford to find a way to steal more antibiotics.

"Dammit." Dean said. Sam wouldn't assure him the antibiotics were still good. Which meant they weren't. Again, Dammit. "Okay, I gotta think." Dean said and put in a Megadeath tape to help him out. "Come on Dean." He said as he drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "Okay, we need to ditch the car. Sorry baby. So we're headed to Bobby's."

Sam lifted his head and looked at Dean. "Did I wake up in the bizzarro universe or something? Are you actually leaving Christine for Truckzilla? Dad did that you know. She won't be happy." He teased and laid his head back down. "But I am sure she'll take you back once you drop me off someplace and come back for her. "

"I'm not leaving her for Truckzilla, and her name is not Christine." Dean said with a scowl. "Her classic lines and stellar beauty are just too recognizable, so for her SAFETY, I'm leaving her in Bobby's good hands and exposing Truckzilla to all the danger, peril, and possible paint scratches. And I'm not dropping you off anywhere, dude, so forget about it. Once this dies down, or they think I'm in another car, I'll come back for her. And why am I explaining this? You're such a bitch."

"Only cause you're a jerk. And yes you are going to drop me off somewhere. Because you are not going to spend your life on the run. Because logic says they are looking for two men traveling together, therefore it would be better for us to go separately. I can get another clunker from Bobby. No one expects a Winchester in a clunker."

"We've always spent our lives on the run." Dean pointed out. "And if you try to ditch me, I swear I'll hunt you down myself and beat the shit out of you." Dean said, turning around a bit in the seat to make his point. And saw Sam's leg. "Dude...that's gross." And probably infected.

"I'll be fine." Sam grumbled. "Gees it's just a little flesh wound. Been hurt worse .. really." He said with a faint chuckle but nestled into the pillow. "And I can hide pretty well when I want to, man. You wouldn't find me." He said wishing he were teasing. Because he didn't know what they could possibly do to get out of this one.

"Dude, I'd find you." Dean said, shaking his head. "But get some rest, I'm going to pull in at the next truck stop," which was a few hours away at least, " and get us some food."

"Dream on." Sam said, smiling sleepily, as he drifted back off to sleep. Thankfully a dreamless sleep, because Sam didn't think he could take any more dreams like the last one. He had been battered and broken, mind controlled, tied up, knocked out, hit by a semi and possessed by a demon whose pet charity was misery. Those things didn't leave him trembling and gasping for breath. They didn't make him break out in a cold sweat and curl up in the fetal position. His dreams did. And the only thing worse than the dreams was the sure and certain knowledge that those dreams were going to become a reality.

Dean drove until the next truck stop and parked between two semis and headed in to get some food. Quietly, staying behind men bigger and wider than him, until he got back to the car. "Dude, we've got a problem." He said to Sam, waking him up and handing him his food. "I'm talking cops and troopers and highway patrol all over the place. The truckers were saying it's a net to stop the speeding and trafficking. But they're still all over the place."

Sam nodded as he sat up. He was flushed, and his eyes burned. He was sure it was just because he was tired. At least that was what he had convinced himself of so that he could lie to his brother. "Okay… so we find someplace to lay low until they figure they were wrong about where we are." Although Sam was starting to suspect that they had another psychic tracking them. They found them too easily in some ways.

Dean was agitated as he scanned the road. Picking out what could be undercover vehicles. "Dammit." He said. "Okay, where's the CB?" He asked Sam. They had one, they just didn't keep it hooked up all the time, or hardly at all. Drained the battery and overtook the radio. "Got an idea."

Sam reached under the passengers seat and pulled out the CB " here ya go" He said, his hand brushing against his brother's in the transfer. It was hot. Like the rest of him was hot. "What's the idea?" He asked, wishing his leg weren't bad, he'd slip away while Dean was busy and stow away in a truck.

Dean dropped the CB on the passenger seat and grabbed Sam's hand. "Dude, you're burning up." He said. "Shit. Okay, forget Truckzilla. We gotta get to the roadhouse." No choice, Ellen should be able to hook them up with a doctor. Hunters, contrary to popular belief, spanned all walks of life. "There was this song Dad used to play all the time. God I was so sick of it. Gonna see if anyone else gets it and if anyone wants to help us out here a bit." Truckers were a unique sort, at least the long haul ones. An authority all their own. He hooked up the CB. "Do NOT laugh, it's the song." He said, he couldn't believe he was about to say this. He sighed as he activated the CB. "Breaker 1-9 this here's the Rubber Duck. You got a copy on me Pigpen?"

"Can we trust the road house?" Sam asked. Ellen yes, the road house? Who knew? Then he heard what Dean was saying and couldn't help it. He lay back down in the back seat and started to laugh, trying to keep it down to where it wouldn't be heard by the others on line.

"Copy Rubber Duck, I'll be your Pigpen, what's your situation?" A voice said over the line.

Dean ignored Sam and grinned at being recognized. "Go Dad." He said with a chuckle of his own as he hit the mike again. "Pigpen, got my kid brother burning up in the back seat and bears on my tail. Need to get to a roadhouse about nine hundred miles from here, could use some cover."

"I think we can help you out, where ya at?" The older trucker asked, and waited for Dean to tell him. "This is your lucky day boy. I'll be pulling in to feed this rig in about 20. Keep your head down and your ears on."

Sam couldn't believe this was happening. Figured he had to be hallucinating. He had hated that song growing up, used to drive him buggy. So did the non stop CB chatter when their father was trying to be evasive because of something gone wrong and the cops looking for what ever Alias he had been using. This was absolutely insane.

"Ten-four." Dean said and put the mike down, grinning at his brother. "And you thought Dad didn't teach us anything useful. Knew that song would come in handy, even if it drove me insane. "We got a few minutes, let me see that leg, Sam. So I know what I'm dealing with."

"You should eat while you have the chance. You are going to be driving like a bat out of hell all the way to the road house." He said but shifted in the back seat allowing him to have a look at the leg. Some times you just didn't argue with Dean, there was no point.

"Dude..." Dean said, looking at the leg. It was inflamed, and there was pus. "Okay, okay. You need a doctor. End of story. Ellen should be able to find us one." He went back into the truck stop and got more water. "You need to drink and take Tylenol until then. Get that fever down. Piss into bottles if you have to." Since there would be no stopping except for fuel. But he had enough food for a few days in the front seat with him.

"Nice." Sam said and rolled his eyes but he took the Tylenol. He sat up and moved forward enough to bring down the back of the seat a little and reached into the trunk for another pillow and his blanket, the closed it back up again. "I love being able to do that." Newer cars didn't allow for that as often any longer.

The CB sparked up again. "Rubber Duck, this is Pigpen. What's your twenty?"

"Pigpen, we're over by the pumps hiding between a jimmy and a kenworth." He said.

A truck pulled behind them, squaring them in and a large burly trucker swung out of his cab and walked over to them, leaning over the passenger side.

"Blast from the past." He said with a grin. "Saw you two last when he was still in diapers." But he recognized the car, and recognized John in Dean. "Got me five trucks along with us. More might join in, thing's been quiet lately."

Sam looked up shivering and pulled the blanket tighter around him. "Starting to think Dad knew just about everyone." He said with faint smile. He felt better about this now. "You in the business too?" He asked.

"Nah. My daddy was though. My brothers are. I'm a...facilitator. I just keep things in the community nicely greased so things get done. Managed to combine it with a real life business and here I am. So you're going to Ellie's I guess?"

"Yeah, but keep it quiet till we get there. We're on a lot of wanted lists." Dean said.

"Like father, like sons." He said with a raucous laugh. "Brings me back to the good old days. So we'll do this, keep you boys boxed in, won't be seen."

"Appreciate that." Dean said.

"It's amazing how much we didn't realize was going on." Sam said taking another drink of water. His father had been full of secrets. Sometimes he thought he and Dean had been thrown to the wolves as kids, but now he was starting to think his father had sheltered them a great deal more than they realized.

"That's Dad for you." Dean said with a shrug as he followed the truck out and was quickly flanked by two more rigs, with one closely following him. The other was a ways ahead, playing look out. "I never realized the community ran this deep." They'd been kept out of it for the most part, with the exception of a few that they had stayed with as children.

"Can you imagine if we had been taken to the road house as kids? Or any of those other places? " Sam asked, nestling down in the seat for the long drive ahead. His eye lids were heavy but he tried to keep them open. He didn't want to dream. Didn't want to go back to that place. That was hell. Not Dante's vision, but his visions. Cold, impersonal, filled with nothing but pain and despair. Sam went to hell when he slept.

"Nah, Dad was too anti social." Dean said with a chuckle. "And when Ellen said that Dad was like family once, she obviously meant the strange uncle who hides in the dark corner with a bottle of Cuervo cleaning weapons or something. Maybe looking at porn. Maybe that's where you get it from."

He laughed at that. "You really have to get over this fixation with me and porn." He shook his head. "I still think they had a thing… or an almost thing." Sam said. "She is way too emotional about the subject of Dad. And I don't think it's just cause Dad survived and her husband didn't. That sort of thing doesn't take you from family to persona non grata."

"Tossing out those fancy college words again." Dean said with a chuckle. "I don't know, maybe. But eww. I want to imagine Dad and Ellen going at it about as much as I want to walk in on you watching porn again."

Sam giggled uncharacteristically. "You sure seem to think about it often enough." He said referring to the porn. "I'm not a kid, Dean you don't have to protect me from the naked women on the screen anymore. And I don't think they actually did anything. She was married after all and Dad was a pretty black and white kinda guy. I think it was more… you know… "

"Yeah, you have a fever." Dean said, shaking his head at the giggle his brother just did. "Pigpen up there will drop us off at the road house, I gotta call Bobby. We can have Dad's truck brought there." He trusted Bobby with the Impala.

"Regular family reunion. So long as Jo doesn't show up it should be all fun and game." Sam said as he lay his head down. "Ash is probably convinced we're already gone since I haven't even turned on the lap top in the last week. "

"Oh part of me hopes Jo shows up. And that Ellen stays out of it." Dean said darkly. He wouldn't kill her, but he might terrorize her and make her wish she was dead. "Yeah, well, I actually think we can trust Ash. That's one guy that's not going to drop a dime on us to the authorities. He likes hacking too much."

"Unless he got caught." He hoped that wasn't the case. He didn't like to think that about Ash but he had to consider it. He wouldn't have thought that about Jo either. "I have a hard time wrapping my brain around Jo betraying us too but she did. "

"Jo's impulsive." Dean said as he drove, the lack of wind resistance increasing his gas mileage exponentially. "She's also reckless and thinks she knows it all. I CAN believe it was her, if it was anyone. I don't know, Gordon? But he wouldn't have our last known whereabouts. Jo would."

"I could see Gordon… but Jo was in the library in Connecticut ." Sam pointed out. "Wow… you know those things block out the sun. " His tone was groggy. Tired. But he blinked his eyes open whenever they closed. "You know this car would be so much better than that car in Smokey and the Bandit… can just see Dad… never mind…" He said with a laugh.

Dean laughed. "You know, I can see that a bit." John had had fleeting moments w hen he was light hearted, and could have pulled off the Burt Reynolds character fine.

"Rubber Duck, this is Pigpen. Copy?" The CB said.

"Rubber Duck here. What's going on?"

"Got a bear trap ahead. Nice sized one, so you stay close on my flaps as we pass on by. Watch my lights." Pig pen replied.

"They going to pick us off?" Dean asked.

Pig pen laughed. "We've grown. Got ten in all. Wish them luck. Just stay out of sight." He said before signing off.

"Come on, Sammy, admit it." Dean said with a grin. "This is kinda fun."

Sam wasn't awake to respond in those few seconds he had drifted off to sleep. He just snored softly in the back seat, shivering under his blanket. He wouldn't have found it fun, he would have found it terrifying. The fear of endangering others, would have over ridden the adrenaline rush of the situation. Fortunately it was a blissfully dream free sleep. No visions of the past present or future, only the blissful darkness of oblivion.

Dean chuckled and turned the radio up to drown out the sound of his brother's snoring. Not a lot he could do for Sam right now except drive and get them where they needed to go. They were making awesome time, and through the breaks in the trucks he could see the 'bear trap' Pig pen had been talking about. He wondered if it was a normal speed trap or something set up just in case Dean took to the highways, which would have been out of character for r him.

And it was. It was highly out of character, he preferred the back roads above all else, but the highways were the quickest way to getting some help for Sam, and provided them with some cover.

Sam slept through the remaining hours of the drive. He didn't feel the pain in his leg while he slept, didn't feel the heat of the fever that ravaged his body. He didn't feel the car slow and stop at the road house. He heard his brother call his name but did little more than humm in response.

Ellen however heard the sound of several large vehicles pulling into the parking lot and frowned at ash, before picking up a .45 and hiding it in her waist band. She strode out of the front door to look at what had just come up onto her property.

Pigpen got out of the truck and grinned at Ellen. "Now is that any way to greet your brother? Such a sour look on that pretty face of yours." He said with a grin. "Come on, put that gun you got away and give me a hug. Brought some friends with me," he said with a chuckle, gesturing to the forty or so rigs, "and a car."

"Well I'll be damned." She said a grin spreading across her face. "What the hell are you doing here, Harold?" She asked as she moved in to give her brother a hug.

"Where's Jo? She must be about grown by now." He asked.

Ellen's smile faded and her jaw clenched. "Can't say that I know. Not sure I want to just yet." It was honest enough, she wanted to cool off before dealing with her daughter. "So what the hell did you do? Raid a rest stop? I haven't seen a mess of rigs like this since… " she frowned a little. "You brought those boys here, didn't you?"

"Now, Ellie, I know you had your business with their daddy, but the youngest, he's hurt." Harold said as Dean got out of the car. Tired, drawn and stiff, but he was awake, which was more than he could say for Sam as another trucker came over to help him with his taller brother. "I think he's got himself sick too. They gotta get to a doctor, and you know they can't go to a hospital. Figured you might want to help them out with that..."

"Do you know why they're on the run?" Ellie said.

"No, didn't come up." He said with a shrug.

Ellen went over to Dean. "What happened?"

"He got shot, clean through and through. It's infected though, and I didn't know where else to go." Dean said. "But he needs help, and I had to get him that help."

"Get him inside and down into the basement then you come back up here and hide that car." She told Dean, as she looked into the back seat at Sam as he still lay unconscious, more than sleeping. "They're on the run because Jo turned them into the feds." Ellen said bluntly without flinching, even though her eyes betrayed her feelings on the subject. "They know these boys come here for help. So Harold, you help him get Sam down stairs before someone sees them." She frowned and ran a hand through her hair. "The rest of you boys stay put until we get this car out of sight. Then you can come in and have a drink before you get on about you're business. "

"Bobby should be coming soon with Dad's truck." Dean said. "I'm sorry, Ellen,. but I didn't know where else---"

"It's all right Dean." Ellen assured him. He had a look about him, the lost little boy trying to be brave in the face of thunder. "Just get Sam inside. There's a cot down there, I'll see who I can call in."

Dean brought Sam downstairs to a cellar room and covered him up, changing the dressing on his leg. This was far beyond his realm of expertise when it came to wounds, and he swallowed tightly at his brother's unresponsiveness. "Don't you dare die on me, Sam. I swear I'll necromance your ass just to kill you again."

Sam shivered in the coolness of the cellar. His body was so hot that it felt to him as though he were suddenly thrust into a deep freeze. He moaned and clutched at the blanket. His dark eyes opened a little, only to drift back closed once more.

Ash came down the stairs. "Been trying to reach Sam there for a couple of weeks. Guess you boys were flying pretty low there. " He said as he came to stand beside Dean. "Ellen is on the phone with the doctor. She'll be down in a second. Man, this has been eating her alive you know… Jo turning out like that. She blames herself. Not her fault the kid hasn't got any sense. "

"Yeah I know. Having a hard time not blaming everyone around me." Dean said with a sigh as he grabbed some frozen vegetables from the freezer there and started padding Sam with them, easily batting away his protesting hands. "So what you got for us, Ash? Any way to get them off our asses?"

"Not as much as I would like." He admitted. "I have it narrowed down to a couple possible locations for their base of operations. A lot, and I mean a lot of defense funding is being shunted into these locations. And a lot of cover up along with it. Uncle Sam might be funding it but they are ashamed of it. If we can work it right they might just disappear entirely, but it's not gonna be easy."

Dean sighed and ran his hands through his hair. "Well, better than nothing I guess." Not by much but it was the right direction. Had it narrowed down. "I can't believe this is happening. Just glad she didn't rat Sam out while I was still in traction. He would have been an easy target then. Workin' a regular job, living in an apartment with stuff in his name. " Dean shook his head. All of that was over now. He liked his life, when it was his choice to live it how he did. He didn't like it when that choice was taken away.

Ellen came down the stairs carrying a bus tub with ice. "It's gonna be a while before the doc can get here. So we're supposed to get that fever down, and I've got some antibiotics here," she said indicating a syringe, "to get him started. So get those pants off of him and let's get that wound cleaned first. " She frowned "Dean… you came to me for help, now let me help, get moving." She ordered.

Dean started to strip his brother down to his boxers, and undid the bandages once more. He closed his eyes and sighed. It was getting steadily worse. He hoped that doctor showed up soon, or the feds weren't going to have a target any longer. He cleaned the wound and bandaged it again. He watched as Ellen gave him the injection of antibiotics, and stood there twitching until she spread the sheet, then a bit of plastic sheeting over Sam's torso and legs, then another sheet

"We want him cold, not necessarily wet." She said as she began to bank the ice up against his body. It took Ash and Dean both to still his thrashing long enough for the ice to be packed into place. "Don't want to leave him like this too long." She said and handed Dean a thermometer. The kind that you lay over a persons forehead and waited for the numbers to heat up. "He gets down to 100 or so go ahead and start getting rid of the ice but don't cover him up with a blanket until he's back to normal." She said. "Give me your keys." She said. "Don't give me that look, it's not the first time I've driven that beast. Granted at the time your daddy was bleeding all over the passenger's seat at the time, and my Bill was out cold in the back."

Dean reluctantly tossed her the keys and pulled up a chair next to Sam. This was all happening, as much as he wanted to deny it. And go find something to fight. That was usually his solution to things, like the first time Dad had died. He'd gone hunting with such fervor that he ended up scaring Sammy. And now there was nothing to hunt, he was the hunted. Or more correctly his brother was the hunted. This was his little brother, and he was not going to go through this alone. Dean was going to protect him from this if it was the last thing he did, because this was his kid brother. There wasn't even a question in there. It was a certainty.

_Sam had been sedated after killing the doctor. Had surprised him really, he had expected them to kill him. Had hoped they would actually. He couldn't count the times he had relived that particular scenario. Couldn't really say how much time had passed really since his capture. Weeks, months, sometimes he thought years, always struggling to go backward, struggling to find a way to fix it before it started. There was no recovering from what they had done to him. He was becoming a monster, and the longer it went, the less he cared._

_The first time they had been in New Orleans , Sam working away at his job and school, and Dean pretending that he could handle a normal life. His brother had been left for dead in the small apartment, and it had taken Sam months to be able to project himself backwards in time onto his own subconscious. He had been trying to take over even for a moment to warn Dean, but all he had managed to do was give himself horrific night mares of the future to come. _

_It had started a chain reaction, things changed a little at a time. First they weren't captured in the apartment, then there was hotel on the way to Connecticut , where they had both been taken. He had done everything they asked to keep his brother safe. But in the end they had hurt him anyway. He had watched them torture his brother until Dean had retreated into his own mind. He had lived, somehow his brother always found a way to live, but he had been lost to Sam anyway. _

_Dean had died before his eyes in the woods that morning in the woods. They had taken their time, just hanging out and enjoying the peace of it all, and that had cost him everything. Sam thought his sanity had died with his brother in that moment. _

_He didn't think he could survive another round with anything vaguely resembling himself intact. They were pushing his powers, but Sam was growing exponentially because he was reliving it all. Every alteration he managed to bring about he remembered. Because somehow he was different. Maybe it was the demon possession, maybe it was the fact that he was the demon's special chosen from birth. Maybe it was just that they had pumped him full of so many drugs that burned through his brain that he was quite mad and nothing had changed at all._

_He had to try again. Had to give one more try to end this before it began. If he couldn't, then he was going to find a way to end it. He couldn't let them do this anymore, not to any one else… not to his brother. Especially not his brother. _

_He closed his eyes and pushed backward, knowing the time and suddenly he was burning hot, and everything hurt. It hurt in a familiar way, a strangely comforting way, the air didn't smell of plastic and antiseptic. It was musty and damp, and there was the hint of aftershave. He could hear his brother speaking, could hear Ellen… Ash. But he couldn't rouse himself. _

_And in that moment he didn't care. He let himself slide into that comfortable place, into that safety zone that was created by Dean. _

Ellen returned a few minutes later with the doctor behind her. She handed Dean his keys back. "This is Phil. He's an old friend. Knew your daddy." She said by way of introduction. "And strangely enough only threatened to kill him twice. That has to be some sort of record."

"Only twice? Musta met him only twice." Dean said, pocketing his keys as he eyed the doctor suspiciously.

"Five times, actually. One doesn't count, I guess, your dad was as out as this one is." He said, pulling another chair over to Sam and started his examination. Often asking Dean, who was hovering, to get out of his light. Ash was pounding away at his modified laptop. Before he had it set up to track the demon. Now he was tracking the government. He felt like one of those guys on the X-Files, those weirdoes who hung out in a van and had their own show for like, two episodes.

The doctor carefully explained Sam's condition to Dean and Dean rubbed his temples.

"Is he going to be okay? And when can I move him?" Dean asked. Once Bobby came with the truck, they were out of here. Here wasn't safe.

"Your brother has a systemic infection. I can stop it, I can basically cure him, but I need time."

"You don't have that long. We don't have that long." Dean said. He was overwhelmed with all of this. "Okay, I'm going to get a beer." He needed space to breath for a moment.

Ellen left Ash and the doctor with Sam and followed Dean up the stairs. The boy was overwhelmed. She knew that look. Had seen it on John's face a lot in the early years, before he started learning how to cover it up with that mask. "Dean, come on." She said motioning him toward the kitchen, grabbing two beers as she walked past the cooler. If he didn't de-stress a little he was going to melt down and neither of them could afford that right now.

She handed him one of the long necked bottles. "Okay, spill, everything. I don't mean report, I mean spill or it's gonna blow."

Dean took the bottle and twisted the top off. Then drank half of it in one gulp. "Spill?" He said, with what passed for a laugh. "Oh Ellen, you're the last person I want to spill to. You're the last person I should spill to."

"And why's that?" She asked, though she knew why.

"Because it's YOUR daughter that has us in this situation. I couldn't take Sam to a hospital because he's on the radar of something seriously whacked. He's having nightmares, where I end up dying because of this, and he gets twisted as a weapon of some sort by the government, after lots of torture. I don't know who to trust anymore, I don't think I can trust anyone. My father is dead, my mother is dead, I've pretty much died twice, maybe three times already. We've been beaten up, tortured, shot at, framed, possessed and everything else, and that was fine. This, THIS, I can't take. This I don't know what to do about. THIS I can't help him with. He closes his eyes and he sees things I can't fight for him. He's my brother and I can't protect him. And you want me to spill? Knowing that Jo put us in this position, she dropped a dime on us and now all this has happened and I can't stop it. I can't stop it! I'm better off blowing."

"You're doing pretty good at the spilling, actually." Ellen said with a sad smile. She loved her daughter but in those moments she never wanted to lay eyes on her again. She had crossed a line that there was no coming back from. One day … maybe… Ellen would welcome her as a daughter but she would never have a home at the roadhouse again. Too many people depended on it being a safe haven. If she had to make a choice, she would chose John's boys for now. "Dean… I don't know how you boys are going to come through this, it's bigger than anything I have ever dealt with before, but I will help any way I can. Sam … he knows you're doing the best you can. You aren't failing him, Dean. "

"Well, the best I can isn't good enough, so I am failing him." Dean said. "My whole life, I've watched out for him. I've protected him and I've bailed his ass out of trouble." And knew Sam had done the same for him. "And now when it counts, I can't. All I can do is keep running and keep him with me. I'm like...Dad...all over again. Which is what drove Sam to Stanford in the first place. I can't do this, Ellen. I can't be expected to keep everything together all the time, all the little pieces in place, but I have to because if one of them flies out of place, the whole thing falls apart. How do you live with this kind of weight? It's not Sam's fault, I know that. But I don't know how much longer I can keep it all together, keep the game face on."

"To hell with the game face." Ellen said. "Your daddy was a good man, but if there was one thing that caused him more heartache and trouble in this life than anything else it was that damned game face of his. If you think Sam doesn't see through it you're wrong. He's a smart one, and right now, you aren't hiding it so well. " She opened the other beer and handed that to him. You're right about one thing. You can't be expected to keep everything together. That's something you are going to have to start sharing with Sam. He's a grown man, Dean. It's time for you to take care of each other. Not just you taking care of him."

"No." Dean said and Ellen gave him a look. "No! Because his idea of taking care of me is to take off. Believe me, he's mentioned it. A lot. He's held right now to a promise, because I caught him a weak moment is all. Other than that, he would have been long gone and that wouldn't be good for anyone. This was supposed to end when we sent the demons back to hell. Dad's last words, we didn't have to do this anymore. And the government is making a liar out my father."

"Okay…so Sam needs to know that isn't going to help. But you can't keep shouldering all of this on your own. You have to let someone help you. You aren't that boy's father. You're his brother. You need to act like brothers and do this together. Every time Sam gets into trouble you ride in on your white horse and save the day. That isn't going to work this time. " She looked at him worriedly. "Have the two of you considered leaving the country? " She asked.

"Absolutely." Dean said. "Don't ask me anymore on that though." He shook his head. "I don't know, Ellen, I don't know how much he can do, I mean, he's always been the baby of the family. We've protected him from as much as we could, and I just feel like a failure because I can't. And he can't protect me. All we can do is run."

"As much as I hate the idea of you boys spending your lives on the run… if that's all you can do then that's what you do. Ash is working on figuring out what Agency it is. If anyone can sort that out, it's Ash. You just keep your heads down until he figures that out. Do you think they are targeting the others like him? Sam said that he wasn't the only one…"

"There have been reports of other missing psychics." Dean admitted. Ash knew that much, he was the one who told Sam. "Psychics being committed and then never heard from again, or they just plain vanished. I'm stuck in the middle of some government conspiracy."

"I know… and to be honest it scares the hell out of me." Ellen said then looked up at the doctor as he came back up the stairs.

"Well, he is awake now." He said. "And was completely convinced that I had locked you away somewhere with the intent of causing you harm. So if you wouldn't mind going down stairs and reassuring my patient that you are indeed in one piece, then I can finish cleaning out that leg. "

As soon as Phil said that Sam was awake, Dean was headed back down the stairs, only hearing the last part behind him. And he looked like hell. Sam, that was. "Hey, Sammy." He said sitting down. "You feeling okay?" He asked, swallowing. He didn't look all that great, but at least he was awake, which was an improvement.

"Dean." Sam breathed, and looked at his brother as though he hadn't seen him in years. "My god." He reached out and pulled his brother to him almost desperately. He couldn't help it. All the times he had seen him hurt, or die since this had all begun it didn't seem real that he was here, that he could touch him. "You're alright… "

"Dude...I'm not the one who was shot." Dean said, managing to get out of his brother's iron grip and straighten his blankets. "That would be you. Phil says you're going to be all right, but man, you gotta behave. We both know I'm the troublemaker of the family, and you're trying to cut in on my gig here."

Sam laughed a little and eased back onto the pillows. "Shot…" he said looking a little confused for a moment. "Oh that's right. Shot… wow. We're at Ellen's now, aren't we?" It had worked, but it was only working because his past self was unconscious. Once Sam got better, once the body began to heal he would be shoved back into his own time again. He had to think fast… couldn't lose his brother again.

"Yeah, ended up with a convoy of about forty rigs." Dean said with a chuckle. "They're up having some beer and food before they hit the road. Bobby should be here with Dad's truck soon, then we'll head up to Canada I think. Canada could be fun, right?" He blamed his brother's odd behavior on the fever. He'd read somewhere that it could make people act weird, and Sam was definitely acting weird. "So that Phil guy Ellen brought in has to finish up on your leg, so the sooner he does that, the sooner we can get going."

Though he knew that Sam would need at least a day or two of rest. Rest in a non moving place anyway. And he had just driven a 900 mile race, he wasn't anxious to get back on the road right this minute himself.

Bobby hadn't arrived yet… okay, he hadn't gotten there before the feds last time either… there was time, he hoped.

"Yeah, okay. Once he is done… I wanna go upstairs for a while. Feeling claustrophobic down here." That much was the truth. He wanted to look out windows, sit in a chair… have a beer. God beer had never sounded so good.

"Now there's my brother." Dean said, putting some optimism in his voice as Phil came back down and resumed work on Sam's leg. "I'm already two up on you, dude. And Ellen says she hasn't heard a word from Jo."

"She hasn't." Ash said. "I used to triangulate her calls for Ellen, so we'd know where she was. Had a tap on the phone and everything. Believe me, if she called, I'd know."

"You had a tap on the phone?" Dean asked in horror. "The same phone I called on?"

"Nah, the house phone. You know, where Ellen sleeps and everything." Ash said. "Jo wouldn't call the roadhouse, afraid of who might pick up."

Sam tensed at the mention of Jo. It was all her fault, all the things that happened to him, that happened to Dean. It was because she had poor impulse control. Because she was jealous. The windows in the road house rattled violently as he shunted his emotions and a new plan formed in his mind. But he had to keep his present self suppressed, just long enough… just long enough.

He laughed a little at Ash. "Yeah, probably wise on her part. "

"Bout the wisest thing she's done in years." Ash scoffed. "So I've got hits all over the community for some sort of agency that's after you two."

"Community?"

"Conspiracy theorists. They're not always wrong. In fact, they're hardly wrong. They just go about it the wrong way so everyone thinks they're nuts."

"Which they are." Dean pointed out.

"Yeah, says the guy who chases ghosts for a living." Ash said with a laugh as he drank a beer Dean brought down for him. "Anyway, dismissing all that X-Files crap from people calling themselves Smoking Man or Mulder, getting a few good leads."

Sam frowned. Ash was good, but he was going to need another lead, something substantial, but not too direct. Too direct would lead to too many questions. "I don't know… if I were going to set up a research facility, for this sort of thing, keeping it close to the source would be smart, don't you think? Just in case it worked? " He said and thanked the doctor for taking care of his leg. "Come on… help me upstairs. I am in serious need of sunshine and fresh air."

"Good point. No one wants to transport psychics all that far." Ash said as he wandered upstairs with his lap top, his next assignment already being plotted out.

"That is one weird almost roadie." Dean said with a shake of his head as he helped Sam up. "Come on, let's get some color in you. You know, I had more color when I was in traction. You know how sad that is? Eight months inside, no sun, nada, and I had more color than you." This, he was fine with. His brother was alert, coherent, fairly mobile, and wasn't trying to take care of him. Dean got to slip back into his old comfortable role.

Sam was glad that the others had left the road house, it would be easier to deal with the three of them alone. He did however go to the table next to the window and settled down, He didn't know how long it had been since he had felt the sun on his face. Even the setting sun was awe inspiring at this point, and he smiled. That too felt alien. "So… how about that beer?" He asked as he started a plan in the back of his mind.

"Coming up." Dean said and went behind the bar to grab a couple of beers for him and his

brother. He sat down across from Sam and handed him his share, then opened his own. "How ya doing?" Dean asked seriously. Wasn't that long ago that Sam was being carried out, virtually in a coma, by burly truckers into the road house basement.

Sam had never been good at hiding anything. Everything he felt was always obvious on his face. It seemed the more he tried to hide it, the more it showed. Even an eternity of torment hadn't changed that about him. He was anything but good. He was verging on insanity. If he wasn't already there. If this wasn't a delusion. He took a long drink of is beer and sighed in contentment for a moment. "I'm alright." He said finally. "Tired, I hurt like hell, still feverish I think." Hell he was bad enough that his present self was still practically comatose. The body was up and moving purely on the future self's willpower. "But I'm alright."

"Good." Dean said. Though in his opinion, Sam was...off. He was chalking it up to fever though, as he drank his beer. And the gunshot wound with resultant infection. "You know, we should work on this whole one of us has to be injured all the time. It's really starting to get old." He joked.

Sam laughed a little and took another long drink of his beer. "Yeah I ahm.. I'm working on that. At least it was me this time, cause dude, you take more than your fair share. Talk about selfish, ya jerk." Who knew that one word… Jerk … could mean a myriad of things that had nothing to do with its dictionary definition. He had missed his brother so much. Years of college hadn't been this bad. He had survived college because Dean was always there in the background and all he had to do was reach out. It was different when that wasn't possible.

"Bitch." Dean replied automatically. Again, meaning nothing close to the actual definition or even the slang definition of the word. Strange endearments, but they were constantly trapped in strange circumstances. Besides, that's as close to 'touchy feely' as Dean got unless he was heavily medicated.

"God I'm gonna miss that car." Dean said with a sigh. "But Ash has a few hits on it, should have it narrowed down soon. I hope so. Whole lot easier if we know exactly who and what we're running from, you know?"

Sam stared out the window. "A freakish misbegotten union of Homeland security, project blue book, and department of Defense." He said in a hollow tone. "Throw in a few sadistic doctors and you pretty much have it." He said, as he wondered how hard it would be to drug them all. Dean he could knock out easy but the others, the others would take a little finesse. But he could feel them coming. They already knew. SHE was near.

"Nice." Dean said with a nod. "You know, for once I wouldn't mind being hunted down by a few Penthouse Pets and Playmates of the Month. That would be a nice change of pace I think. Benefits could definitely be good." He said with a chuckle. "I don't know, just tell me when you're ready to split and we'll start heading toward Canada." Even if they had to take the Impala.

It was tempting. But he knew that they wouldn't make it to the border if they left. They didn't have long. He had dropped the clues. Ash was on it, and if they were out of sight when the feds arrived, they would be alright this time, and they could put an end to it. He wouldn't ever have to become what he was now. "I'll let you know." He said. "So… you know.. .I think I want Pizza. Think Ellen would shoot us for ordering in ?" he asked. "I'd be willing to share its just the 4 of us here."

Dean laughed. "She didn't shoot me for bringing forty rigs into her parking lot." Dean pointed out. "But that trucker guy, Pig pen? He's Ellen's brother. Weird, huh?" But he got up and reached behind the bar looking for the phone book and bringing the worn copy over tot he table and started flipping through for pizzerias.

"Wow… guess she comes from a hunter family then." He said and waited for Dean to figure out what pizzeria they were going to use then made his request for the order. He would get them into a pitcher of beer and drug them it was the simplest way. If he were the only one visible, he would be the only one taken.

"Yeah, and I'm somehow not surprised." Dean said as he found a pizzeria and put their order through, and gave the address. Then had to give directions to the address. "That's all set. I don't know, maybe you should get your leg up or something?"

Sam propped his leg up onto the chair across from him. He chatted with his brother until the pizza arrived. It took some encouragement to get Ash and Ellen to come and sit with them. Eventually he had to go about it as though it were a planning session. It was the last thing he wanted to talk about, but if that's what it took so be it. Once everyone was settled in and talking it got easier to diver the conversation to other things. Things he could remember, things he could hold onto when he went back to his own time and body.

He got up to refill the pitcher of beer "No, I got it. I need to move anyway" he said "Getting stiff" It was as good an excuse as any. Beer was an easy drink to drug. It had enough of a bitter flavor that they wouldn't notice until it was too late. He just hoped Ellen didn't shoot him when it started to take effect. Then again… maybe it would be a blessing if she did.


	4. Chapter 4

Dean woke up with a groan. Last thing he remembered was eating pizza and laughing at something Ash was saying. The next thing he knew he was waking up on a cold floor, Ellen was also groaning. Ash? He was still snoring.

"Sam." Dean said before he opened his eyes, figuring Sam was there. "Sam?" He sat up. "Sam! Dammit, Sam!" He said. "Don't you pull this..."

"Ease up on the volume there." Ellen said as she sat up holding her hand to her head. "Little son of a bitch drugged us." She wasn't sure why he would pull such a stupid stunt but when she got her hand on him she planned to find out one way or another. She eased up onto her feet and pulled down the stairs from the trap door above. "He didn't have to put us down here, if he was just running, or make sure Ash's lap top was with us." She said as she climbed the ladder and pushed on the trap door. "He set something on top of this thing." She said groaning with the effort to push it up.

Dean joined her on the ladder, pushing and punching at the door to get it to move. It wasn't budging and Dean was getting more frantic and pissed off with each shove. And then it flew open, for what had been on top of it had been moved and Dean was staring at Bobby.

"Where's Sam?" Dean demanded, going right past Ellen up to the top.

"I just got here. Haven't seen him." Bobby said as he gave Dean a hand. Then Dean stopped.

"You." He said, seeing a certain blonde haired girl. And he advanced on her.

Jo had the good sense to start backing away. "Dean. Now just calm yourself right down." She said. Next thing she knew, she was flat on her back and Dean was poised to seriously hurt her.

Sam wasn't here. Jo was. That meant one thing. Sam knew what was coming and got them out of the way, and let himself be taken. That was unacceptable to Dean, and pissed him right off. And Jo was an easy target to take it out on.

"Whoa there." Bobby said as he grabbed Dean and physically lifted him up off the girl. "I know your daddy taught you better than that." He had never known a Winchester to go all out on a woman like that. At least not one that hadn't started it first with a two by four.

"Let him go." Came Ellen's unnaturally cold tone.

"What?" Jo and Bobby asked in unison. "Mom..." Jo started but stopped at the look on her mother's face.

"Don't you call me that. I don't have a daughter." She said and turned to leave the room.

"What the hell is going on here?" Bobby asked, still not letting go of Dean as yet. Still very much confused.

Dean struggled against Bobby's hold, but Bobby had experience in holding John Winchester back, he knew how to hold to make sure he didn't get away. "That bitch sold my brother out to the government." Dean spit out as Jo got up.

"Dean, come on. They're not going to hurt him." Jo said appeasingly.

"Are you that stupid?!" Dean said. "Bobby, get the hell off me or I swear I'll take you down too."

Bobby didn't let go just yet. "Is what he says true? Did you sell Sam out to the feds?" Bobby asked staring at her incredulously.

"I was on a job and-"

"I didn't ask for an excuse girl, yes or no." Bobby demanded, starting to understand why Ellen had washed her hands of her. Didn't agree with it, but that was because he didn't have children of his own. Not anymore.

"Who the hell are y-"

"Yes or no?" He bellowed. Bobby, for all of his size and rough appearance was a soft spoken gentleman. Never raised a hand to a woman and did his best never to raise his voice, but this was too much.

Jo backed up even further. "Yes." She said quietly, and gasped sharply as Bobby let Dean go and turned to follow Ellen out to the bar, leaving her alone with Dean.

"Do you know what you've done?" Dean said, advancing on Jo again, who shrunk back against the wall. The Dean who had casually flirted with her wasn't in this room. This Dean, Jo was scared of.

"Dean, just calm down." Jo said, hands up, and she screamed when Dean backhanded her.

"Calm down? You sold my brother to some government mad scientists to prove you're a big bad hunter? What the hell were you thinking?" Dean shouted at her as he picked her back up. "Get up. Get up! You did this, and now you're going to face this like a grown up. You're going to face me like a grown up because you just betrayed the last member of my family I had left!"

"Because Sam and the others like him are dangerous." She said finally. "Because he will get everyone around him killed, and you can't see it because you are too close, because he is all that you think you have left. But they can teach him to use that… shining… make it so he isn't dangerous anymore. You'll see when he comes back. " She believed that. Or at least she told herself that she believed that. It made it easier to sleep at night. She wasn't betraying anyone, she was protecting everyone.

Dean backhanded her again. "Shut up." He said. "You're wrong, Sam is not dangerous to anyone except himself. Like now. Like drugging us so you could have your little pansy ass boyfriends take him away. And he's not coming back you idiot! If they were all above board, why were they trying to kidnap him, huh? Why were they tracking us across the US if they were all fuzzy and friendly? You've just handed a weapon over to the government and they're going to torture him until he does what they want. Not dangerous? He is now. And so am I."

Ash finally woke up, what with all the yelling and throwing and pounding above him and scaled the ladder. "Dude. It's early, isn't it?" Ash asked. It wasn't unusual for him to drink until he passed out and wake up where he didn't even remember being, so he didn't think anything of waking up in the cellar. "Jo? What are you doing here? You should leave before Dean kills you. Where's Sam?"

Jo, having suddenly grown a survival instinct, moved away from Dean as Ash asked that question. The dreaded where's Sam, always Sam. Sam Sam Sam Sam SAM. She would live her life in near ecstasy if she never had to hear that Damned Name again. Sam Winchester. "If he is dangerous enough to be used as a weapon he is dangerous enough to get away." She said as she started to walk toward the stairs.

"Wait…" Ash said looking at Dean in confusion. "They got to Sam? When did that happen? No one woke me ? Damn… not feeling the love here."

"He knew they were coming so he drugged us. We all just woke up." Dean said. "And where the hell do you think you're going?" He said as he grabbed her by her hair and threw her against the wall. "I didn't say you could leave. No one's coming to your rescue little girl. You wanna play with the big boys, here's how it's done. You don't sell us out to any form of government, or we have free license to seriously, seriously hurt you. Your father would never have done it, your mother wouldn't, your uncles wouldn't. Which makes you a freak of nature, given your family, that I have to correct. Then I'm going to get my brother out and maybe leave some of you for him to deal with. Since he's so dangerous and all."

Jo screamed as she hit the wall, but knew better than to fight back. One single punch would level the playing field and she just wasn't ready to go toe to toe with an angry Dean Winchester. She had picked up her mother's attitude but couldn't back it up like Ellen.

"You know, Dean," Ash began, "I know you're pissed and all… and Ellen is pissed, and hell I'll be pissed when I'm actually awake, but don't you think this is wasting time? We gotta get to the thing and do the thing to get … you know… the thing…. Can't we torture the kid later? We got work to do." He said as he started for the door. "Although until the thing and thing and thing are all taken care of… maybe she should hang out down here. You know.. .that whole lack of trust thing." He added without even looking over his shoulder.

"Ash should be your new best friend." Dean said as he grabbed Jo's arm and dragged her to the trap door. "Get down there." He said through clenched teeth. He couldn't remember being this angry, and he'd been angry lots of times. "Go!" He said and watched as she started to climb down. Then he slammed the trap door shut and pushed the crates back on top before walking out to the bar and pouring himself a big glass of ice water. "She's still alive." He informed everyone in there.

"I wouldn't have expected otherwise." Ellen said as she and Bobby were cleaning up the debris of the fight that had apparently gone on while they slumbered below. "Sam put up one hell of a fight. More than I would have thought possible with that bum leg.. Then again he got us down stairs too. " She pointedly didn't look at the door Dean had come through. Didn't look at the bags she had set next to the front door either.

Dean saw the bags, and didn't comment as he righted a table. "I didn't expect him to go quietly." He said. "He's still an idiot though, and the government better leave enough of him for me to beat the shit out of." He said. "What was he thinking?"

Ellen had explained the whole thing to Bobby as they cleaned and he stopped what he was doing to go put a hand on Dean's shoulder. "He was protecting the only family he had left." He said solemnly.

"That's my job." Dean said running a hand through his hair, and sighing. "Damn it." Sam had been terrorized by the dreams, and now they were going to become a reality, if they didn't find a way to beat the government at their own game. "I don't know how to get him out of this. "

"We'll figure it out." Bobby said, trying to be reassuring, although he had no idea how they were going to do any such thing.

Ash stretched out on the pool table with his lap top in front of him, and continued to type away, head bobbing along to the beat of music only he seemed to hear. Ash was lost in his own world as he worked on the problem before him. **eat your heart out Neo** he thought to himself as he skated through the web.

Dean paced, walking off the last effects of the drugs as Ash worked. And Ellen and Bobby watched Dean. Ellen was worried, he'd been so close to blowing before, now this. "Sweetie, sit down. You're making me dizzy." She said. Dean was about to object, but he sat down after a look from Ellen, his foot tapping on floor impatiently. Drumming out a nonsensical rhythm with his fingers. Chewing on his lip nearly enough to draw blood. Eyes darting all over the place. Ellen made him a sandwich and placed it in front of him. "Eat." She ordered. "You'll feel physically better."

He ate it without even tasting it, the only sound was Dean chewing and Ash's fingers dancing wildly across his keyboard.

" Eureka ." Ash said after several hours. "Nearly had it before Sam decided to slip us some roofies." He said, coming over to the bar. " Virginia , outside Washington DC . Ten miles from the Pentagon."

"How'd you trace this?" Ellen asked.

"Freedom of Information Act." Ash said. "Traced the funding and then traced contractors, and then I traced scientific grants, and this is what I got. Installation where I figure they're holding people. Got a contract for food, like what the schools get."

"Now the question is, how do we get in and out of there with Sam." Bobby said. "Not that Sam isn't worth a little time in a federal pen… but it's something I would like to avoid if possible. Especially since if we get caught so does he."

"You and Sam found a few of the others, didn't you? The other kids like Sam? " Ellen asked. "Think any of them might have abilities that could help? It's not like it isn't in their best interest to help out."

"Hold on." Dean said and got Sam's cell phone, which he had left behind and scrolled through the numbers. "I think I know one. He'd be perfect." He said, thinking of Andy Gallagher. He called the number, knowing his brother and Sam had kept in sporadic contact. "Andy? This is Dean Winchester, listen I've got a problem." He explained the whole thing to Andy and told him where he was. "He'll be here in a few hours." Dean said. "He's going to catch a flight and meet us here in a rental. Too bad, because his van was wicked." But it was the fastest way. And if anyone couldn't be caught, it would be Andy.

"Don't suppose you can pull up the blue prints on this place with that thing?" Bobby asked as he set another beer in front of Ash.

"It'll take some time." He said as he continued to type. "A lot of hacking. Don't suppose there's anything sweet around here to be had." He asked, not once lifting his eyes from the computer screen.

"We got time. Can't do anything till Dean's buddy gets here." Bobby said as he clasped Ash's shoulder firmly before walking away.

"Ow!" Ash said mutely shrugging that shoulder a couple of times to rid himself of the ghost feeling of Bobby's meaty hand.

Dean chuckled and went to the Impala, which was parked behind the roadhouse, crates and plywood stacked around it. Climbing over the camouflage he reached into the glove compartment and pulled out his M&Ms and went back in. He opened them and put them in front of Ash. "My last bag. Use it wisely." He said.

"Thanks man." Ash said, freeing one hand to shove a handful into his mouth. He worked better on sugar and alcohol, fueled his genius brain.

"Okay, so Andy's coming. He's got this...ability...to get people to do what he wants. Said he's

bringing a friend who might be able to help."

"You sure we can trust him?" Bobby asked.

"Dude, he killed his own twin brother because he was evil. Believe me, this guy's above board." Dean said. And in their world, that made sense.

Ellen went into the kitchen and made something for them to all eat. Wasn't the first time she had done that sort of thing. There had been a time when the roadhouse had been THE location for hunter gatherings. More hunts had been planned out in the booths and tables than she could count. Hunters were hard men. They worked hard, drank hard and they died hard. One of the reasons Ellen didn't want Jo involved, and one of the reasons she worried so much about Sam. He wasn't a hard man, and she didn't know if he had it in him to become one.

She set the food out on the table along with pitchers of beer. "Bobby, can you run that down to her?" She might not want to see her only child but she wasn't going to let her starve.

Dean made a face. She could starve for all Dean cared, but he didn't comment as he traced out a route on the map to the location that Ash specified. "Okay, we're going to need to take at least two vehicles." Dean said. "One of them can't be the Impala, way too recognizable. She's gonna hate to sit this one out too." He shook his head. "Which leaves us with Dad's truck and whatever else you guys want to drive."

"Bill's car is still running." Ellen said after a moment's thought. "It's out in the back. Weapons locker is stripped to nothing but you can refill it with your gear." She said and turned on her heel to go back behind the bar, and busy herself doing something, anything. All these years and it was still hard to think about him being gone. They had had their problems but he had been her man, and he was gone. And now she was losing her daughter, again because of a Winchester . Winchesters and Harvelle's shouldn't mix yet there they were. Mixing it up again and losing.

"I'll go take a look at it." Bobby offered and caught the keys that Ellen threw his way.

Dean sat at the bar and looked forlornly at Ellen. "Ellen, I am sorry." He said. "I don't know, if we hadn't tracked you down after the call you made to Dad, maybe your family would still be all right." Though even he knew that Jo wanted to be a hunter, and would have stopped at nothing. The Winchesters were just an opportunity, and if it wasn't them, it would have been someone else.

Ellen leaned against the bar. "Dean, honey, the world isn't your fault or your responsibility. The sooner you realize that, the easier this life is gonna be." She told him with a sigh. "Jo made her choices. You didn't make them for her any more than I did. God given free will at its most… dangerous." She shook her head "She's young, Dean. Has these images in her head of what this life is really like and she doesn't have the faintest clue about the reality of it. Any of it apparently. I know you boys won't forgive her for this. I don't expect you to. This isn't a rookie mistake, this is pretty hard core, but one of these days… I'm going to. She's all I have left. I just want you to know that when I do… it doesn't mean that I think what she did was alright, or that she could ever make up for it. It just means that I'm her mother."

Dean nodded. "Yeah, I know. Doesn't mean I'll ever be civil to her, or hell, in the same room as her." Because this was unforgivable. He just couldn't bring himself to ever think that he could forgive this, and certainly not until Sam was bitching from the passenger seat. "But sure is hard not to blame me. He knew they were coming, and he put up one hell of a fight, but it's because of me that he's there, because he was trying to protect me." He wasn't normally a selfish egocentric person. But damn. First the jogger drops from a heart attack, unwittingly trading his life for Dean's. Then his father goes and gets himself killed...twice...to save Dean's life. Now Sam. It wasn't adding up right in Dean's head. What the hell made him so important? He was just ordinary Dean, he didn't ask for any of this. Which made it harder, truthfully.

"Yeah, because he loves you. You do crazy things for the people you love, and hell, he probably saved all our lives when he did it. What good would have come of you being taken too, Dean, or killed in the fight? This way we have a chance to get him back, and maybe end this once and for all. It's not because of you, honey, it's because of Jo, and it's because of the organization that took him. You shouldn't blame yourself for this. "

"Yeah, maybe." Dean said as he looked over at Ash, still eating and drinking, and most importantly, typing. Hacking. Getting the information to get his brother back. "Hey, you got a sleeping pill? Got a few hours till Andy gets here and I need to lay down." And without being medicated, he knew he'd just stare at the ceiling.

"There's some Advil PMs on the floor next to my bed. Take double the dose if you want to crash out hard. " Ash said as he continued to stare at the computer screen. He was getting close to finding the information they were needing. "Crash out there if you want. I won't be needing it till we're done." He said.

Ellen gave Dean a warning look and shook her head emphatically, don't do it. And as he walked toward Ash's room for the pm's she took him aside. "Back of the kitchen there are a couple of rooms. Take the one on the left." It had been Jo's room but it was cleared of her things now.

"Thanks, Ellen." He said as he made his way through Ash's room. A disaster area with things he couldn't even try to identify. But he found the pills in a safe place and swallowed a couple dry and headed into the backroom Ellen had designated.

Someone had been there recently, and he had to make the bed before he laid down (basically just finding pillows and a blanket), but right then he couldn't expend the energy to find out who, what, where or when. Not even the how. The drugs finally kicked in and he fell into a deep dreamless sleep he could only hope his brother was having.

Bobby checked Bill's car and came back in. It was in satisfactory condition. "Brought the food down to her." Bobby said, neglecting to tell her that the hellcat she'd raised had been effectively declawed and was mewling her eyes out. "Car works. How's he doing?" Meaning Dean.

"He's sleeping." Ellen told him as she handed him a beer. "How have ya been Bobby? It's been a while." She remembered nights when they had sat at a table and shared war stories. Him, John, Bill and herself. She used to be part of the hunt herself, but having Jo had changed that. She didn't want her daughter to grow up without her parents. Didn't want her left with strangers all the time either.

"Yeah it has." Bobby said, noticing there was only half of their foursome left these days. Scary, how quickly people came and went in their way of life. He could understand why Dean held so tightly to his brother, because he supposed everyone needed someone somewhere along the way. "Too long, I think."

"When did we become our parents?" Ellen asked with a laugh. "Remember how we used to wonder why the old hunters never seemed to congregate like the younger ones. Funny how life comes full circle to bite you in the ass." She sighed. "Those boys are in deep. Seems like the whole world is standing in line to be the ones to knock them over next. "

"We became our parents when the rugrats grew up." Bobby said with a laugh and sobered. "Yeah, I know. Those two have been through more than anyone should rightly be put through. But they're the best hunters I've seen," and Bobby had seen a lot of hunters, "including their father. Their only real weakness is that they're...what's the word? Symbiotic? Parasitic?"

Ellen chuckled. "Co-dependant." She supplied. "John made them that way. I don't know what the hell he was thinking when he did it either. But then, who knows with John. Might have been the only way to keep them safe. He was definitely an ends justify the means kinda man." She thought about it a moment. "I suppose they are pretty good. A little too fly by the seat of your pants for my liking but then I don't have to work with them."

"They only seem that way." Bobby said. "Can't hold the job with Jo against them, they were flying by the seat of their pants because she butted in and refused to leave." He pointed out. "I don't know what John was thinking with those boys. But let's hope it pays off."

"I don't know where I went wrong with her, Bobby." Ellen said. "I thought I had taught her better than this. She knows that we can't afford to fight each other as well as the war. "

"She's got a rosy image of what this life means. It's because she worships her father," a man she barely knew, "and idealized him. That's all. Hopefully she'll come around. If not, we keep her in that cellar until we know if Dean and Sam are out of that area. Especially since I'm going with."

"You always did have a way with holding John down. Never saw anyone else that could do it." She said as she got herself a beer. "There is a lot of John in that boy. And not all of it is his daddy's good traits."

"I know, but they're vital traits anyway." Bobby said. He was one of the few people left alive in the world who had seen Dean and Sam grow up. He knew exactly what kind of men Dean and Sam were. "Just gotta keep in mind that both times, John wasn't killed. He let himself go." An important distinction, really. The only one who could kill John Winchester was John Winchester himself. And the only people he'd do that for were Dean and Sam. "But at least Dean is a lot more personable than John ever was." Amazing, considering how they grew up. "And Sam, that kid's as smart as a whip. They're survivors, just like their daddy was."

"You know… up until today I thought that Sam was the softer of the two boys." She said. "And I don't mean that in any derogatory way. I mean he was always more open and sincere. Willing to let you see him. Dean holds back. Has that guarded way about him like John. Comes across like it's all water off a duck's back. But after this… I think I was wrong. He may not come across as warm and fuzzy, but Dean's the more fragile of the two."

"He sure internalizes everything and makes it personal." Bobby said. "If we don't get Sam back, we just might lose both of them. Sam just never had to really learn the walls that John had, and Dean has. And Dean keeps the walls up so he doesn't have to feel. When they crash down, it'll be messy. Yeah, I think fragile's a good word. Just not used to a hunter, never mind a Winchester , being fragile."

"That's because you think of fragile in terms of the physical. No… Dean has too much compassion for his own good. At least if he is going to continue to live his life the way he has been. No hunter dies in his sleep. One day either he or Sam is gonna go down. The sooner they comes to terms with that the better it will be on both of them. " That was why she hadn't wanted Jo to become a hunter, or to marry one for all of that. It was hard, dark, painful life. Not something anyone should want for their children if they have a choice.

"I don't know, I think it might be best for them if Dean goes down first." Bobby said, shaking his head. "Not much better, but there is a slight chance there that Sam would come out of it. When did we become the parental guiding figures, Ellen? Remember when we were rebels bucking the system?"

"When we got old… " She said with a laugh. She wasn't all that old, early 40s was hardly old by any definition, unless you were a hunter from a long line of hunters. 40 was old for a hunter. The body started to remember all those injuries long since healed. Joints creaked and moaned from years of abuse. And that was the beginning of the end. Unless you were just too damned stubborn to notice. "When we started seeing all the kids taking risks and living by our examples. Hell, I'm surprised those boys didn't kill themselves years ago trying to be like their daddy, and John… John was no where near as impulsive as my Bill."

"And we're who's left." Bobby said with a chuckle. "Great examples we are too. They'll find their way. They have to. This is deeper than sink or swim." He shook his head. "We always thought we'd be the last ones, we'd fight the good fight until there was no fight left to fight. Never ends though. Wonder if they've realized that."

"I think Dean does on some level. Sam always struck me as looking for the end of the road." Ellen said "I don't know. I hate to say it but it was probably a good thing that Dean was laid up for almost a year. Otherwise they would be looking at some serious burn out. They need to learn to slow down."

"Good luck. Those boys are running from the spectre of both their parents now." Bobby said. "And it wasn't so pleasant for the hospital staff, trust me." He said about Dean being laid up for the better part of the last year.

"Oh I don't doubt it that boy is something else when he is bored or anxious. So how well do you think this plan is going to work? Just going in and duking it out with the feds like it was just any other old day at work?"

"Basically." Bobby said with a chuckle. "If this Andy is all that Dean says he is, hopefully there won't be much duking it out. Just a snatch and grab. We'll let Ash fry the network there and then we'll leave." And he hoped it was going to be that easy, though he doubted it.

"I hope so cause this could backfire in ways I don't even want to think about." Ellen said. "I imagine John's truck is fully stocked, what all do you need for Bill's car? " She had more than enough weapons stashed around the place to share. Especially since she felt partially responsible for the nightmare Sam and Dean were going through since it started with her own daughter.

"We're going to take the stock from the Impala I think." Bobby said. "But a few nice explosives if you still have them around sure would be nice. Wouldn't mind setting off the fire alarm and leveling the whole building when we're done, myself. Be closure in my book."

She gave a short nod. "If there isn't enough here, I know where to get more. Or, more to the point, make more." Ellen said and motioned for Bobby to follow her into the kitchen where they could start the process and kill time until Andy arrived.

It was a few hours later when Andy arrived. He had to drive a crap rental car to where Dean specified, he sure did hate to leave his van, but this was quicker. And if the government was after psychics, well that meant they were after him. And they already had Sam. So if he could put a stop to it, he would. Because he wasn't his twin. He wasn't evil. He supposed he was still trying to balance the karmic scales a bit as he walked into the roadhouse.

A man with a mullet was laying on a pool table, typing on a lap top that looked like it had been torn down and rebuilt. He could hear a man and a woman talking in the kitchen. And snoring from a back room he couldn't see. He was betting the snoring was Dean as he walked into the kitchen.

"Um. Hi. I'm Andy." He said with a wave putting down his bag.

"Well hello Andy, I'm Ellen and this here is Bobby. That's Dean snoring away in the back room, and Ash is the one lost in the computer out there on my pool table. "

Zoe came in behind Andy. She wasn't sure about this at all. In fact, she was thinking the road house looked about as dangerous a place as she ever wanted to go to…and that was without the customers there. She wouldn't even go near the front door if it was rocking inside."Ahm… hi." She said timidly. "I'm ahm… I'm Zoe."

"Zoe… hi." Ellen said giving Bobby a look. Dean was not going to like this one bit.

Bobby exchanged that look with Ellen. Dean was beyond fragile at this point, he was downright brittle. Shaking up any plans he had in his head might make him shake apart at this time. "Hi Zoe, Andy. Good to meet you. What made you come, Zoe?"

If Zoe were a mouse, she would have squeaked at being addressed directly by the gruff looking older man. As it was her eyes widened. "I..ahm...I mean...um..." And she looked to Andy for help.

"I met Zoe on the road." Andy said with a grin. "She's like me, well like me and Sam, in that whole class. Whole mind thing. Just not exactly like me, but like me. Completely different actually, but it's all up here." He said, tapping his head. "She wants to help. And she can. And we need her."

Both of Bobby's bushy eyebrows went up then. "I see." It was a lie. He didn't see at all. He was thinking they were all going to be killed now. Pure and simple. In the next 24 hours he was going to be sitting in the hunters' equivalent of Valhalla with John Winchester and Bill Harvelle explaining exactly how he came to be sitting there. And it would all boil down to **we let Dean pick the team**

"I ahm… I ah … I move things. And I am good at keeping things from hitting me too…lots of experience with that. Started out with little things… you know… School cafeteria food… kids were always throw…ing… ahm… yeah. I'll be quiet now. " Zoe said sheepishly and seemed to shrink a good foot under Ellen's pointed gaze.

"I'll go wake Dean." Ellen said turning on her heel quickly and heading for the back room.

"No, really." Andy said. "I nearly hit her cause she was walking in the middle of the road, and I bounced right off her. Imagine that with bullets. Especially if we have to carry Sam out, that's one less person at least who can shoot back."

Ellen went to wake Dean, he was so out she ended up having to shake him hard.

"What?" He snapped, rubbing at his eyes. In that moment she was reminded on just how young he was, at least in the larger scheme of things.

"Andy's here." She said. "And he's brought a...friend."

"What?" Dean said, sitting up and grabbing his boots to get them back on. "A friend? I didn't hear anything about a friend. Got coffee going?"

"Always. Apparently she is someone he picked up on the road. Seems to have some sort of TK ability, but she looks green. Not just to a fire fight, I mean green to the real world." Ellen said with a shake of her head.

"Nice." Dean said and stretched, rubbed his face and then grabbed his jacket as he headed over to the bar area. "Hey Andy, thanks for coming."

"No problem." Andy said. "So, this is Zoe. She's our human shield."

"Human shield?" Dean asked, looking at Zoe. She was small, with dark, dark hair that was falling in her face all the time. And looked about twelve.

Andy laughed and picked up a pool ball and threw it at Zoe with a good amount of force. And it bounced off her. Well, that wasn't quite correct. It bounced back toward the wall a good three feet away from her. Dean nodded.

"All right, human shield." He said. "Andy tell you what we're doing?"

"Um...well...that we're...you know...going to...I think Virginia...and there's this...you know...government facility type...thing...and that...um...your brother...well, he's there...I think..." She looked at Andy. For either confirmation or rescue. "And we're going to get him out."

"You coming on your own or did Andy work his mojo?"

"It doesn't work on me." Zoe said. And Dean wanted to slap his forehead, he should have remembered that. It didn't work on Sam either.

"Ash, how's it going?" Dean asked.

"It's going." Ash said. "Going extremely freaking well. About done. I am a god."

Ellen snorted at that. "I'll get the thermoses full and pack your food for the road. " She said starting to head back into the kitchen. "Bobby." She called over her shoulder. "There's extra ammunition down in the cellar. Might want to go get it. Don't think Dean needs to be down there right now. "

"Right." He said in response. He figured the last thing Dean needed to see before heading out was Jo bawling her little eyes out. That was better left to Ellen later on. He didn't necessarily want to deal with her either. He felt responsible for the boys since John's death… the first one anyway.

Andy drug a chair over by the pool table and sat down to look at what Ash was doing "So what exactly is your godly feat of the day?" He asked in an amiable tone. Andy was a friendly guy. Sure he survived using his abilities more than anything else, but he didn't really use it for anything he didn't need.

"Dude, I hacked into the Pentagon, and scored blue prints for their super secret X-Files psychic facility." Ash said around a mouthful of M&Ms. "That's definitely a godly feat. And even better, if the firewalls go off, they'll think it's the president's KID doing it."

"Good work, Ash." Dean said as Ash hooked his lap top up to a hotwired printer and printed them out. Dean took the pages and looked them over. "Not bad, not bad. How about staffing? Do we know when staffing is the lightest?"

Ash turned his lap top around. "Two in the morning, my man."

"Uniforms and ID's are the next question." Ellen said as she brought in several thermoses of coffee, and two small ice chests, one for each car.

"I'm pretty sure I can score us some once we get there. Talking to the right people." Andy said with a shrug.

"Yeah, and what if you talk to the wrong ones. Not all of you are going to be hard to convert to their cause, whatever that cause is. You could run into other psychics in there." Ellen pointed.

"Oh…" Andy said and thought about how to work around that. It had been damned frustrating trying to get it to work on Sam that was for certain.

Dean sighed. "We'll work on it. We'll take 'em out if we have to." Meaning just incapacitate them hopefully, knock them out and lock them up. "But Andy and Zoe here are immune, they should be able to keep up straight. And Ash's brain might be so fried it wouldn't work anyway."

This was chancy, he knew that. But he didn't have a choice, because he wasn't going to leave his brother there to rot. To be tortured and lose himself in that lab. As long as Dean was alive, Sam's safety and well being was his responsibility, and it was one that he took seriously. Probably too seriously, but someone had to watch out for the kid.

Bobby set a heavy box down on the table. Within were the explosives and extra rounds for weapons. "Ellie and I decided to set them back a bit once we get everyone out of the building." He said indicating what they had spent the afternoon creating.

Dean leafed through the box. "Good idea." He said. "Well, we might as well get going. Long, long drive." He looked at Andy and Zoe. "One of you each in each car. That way, if something starts happening, at least there's one person in the car who won't be affected and can alert the other."

Zoe gave Andy a panicked look. "Separated?" She squeaked out. In a car, to Virginia...with these three rough necks who could probably split her in half with a flick of their wrists? Oh god what had she gotten herself into?

Dean gave her the best reassuring smile he could manage. "If you don't want to come, that's all right. No one will be mad. It's okay. You can stay here, and Ellen will take you to the Greyhound station to wherever you want to go. This is a strictly volunteer thing."

Zoe took a breath. Then another. "No, no, I'm okay." She said. "I'll be fine."

"Good." Dean said. "Thanks for the explosives. And the food. And the truck." He said to Ellen. "And I am sorry about Jo." Ellen nodded tightly. "Come on, we got a ways to drive."


	5. Chapter 5

Sam awoke with a scream. Any seasoned hunter, or old world exorcist would have thought the young man was possessed hearing the dual tones coming from his mouth. One faded away, taking with it the power that had been forced to mature at a rapid rate in Sam. Taking with it the madness that had settled in, the homicidal rage and fury was gone too, leaving only one very confused, and very weak Samuel Winchester behind.

The fever had been treated on the plane to Virginia , as was the gun shot wound, but recovery was a slow thing. Especially since Sam had been up and moving around on it too soon. Fighting, moving unconscious loved ones, preparing to die in a blaze of glory. Well two out of three wasn't too bad. If he had to fail at one, his future self would have preferred it to be the latter that he failed at. His brother was safe. Unfortunately the Sam left inhabiting his body currently didn't know that. The last thing he remembered was talking with Harold at the truck stop. He had no memory of the road house at all.

But he knew pain. They had wasted no time getting him into the lab. The power he had demonstrated at the roadhouse was beyond anything they had anticipated. They had known that Sam was supposed to be higher on the food chain somehow than the others. How or why they didn't know. They didn't believe in demons. Not biblical, fallen angels scrambling to get out of hell demons. They believed in things they could quantify, spirits and monsters could be quantified. Angels fallen or otherwise could not. So the man with yellow eyes, they assumed was another of the children, who had already achieved his full power. Especially since none of them dreamed of him any longer.

"He's come along faster than expected." One of the scientists said, reading over the report about the road house. "It shouldn't take much to get him up to speed." He said with a nod as he handed the folder back to his assistant. He leaned over Sam then, examining him as he would a specimen in a Petri dish. "Get a full work up on him." He wasn't convinced that Sam, and the other ones like him, were fully human. It was only one of his theories that he was able to work on while here. So far, their DNA had come back as human. But it was a giant code he needed to crack. "Mr. Winchester, if you co operate, this will go so much easier for you." He said to Sam. "If you don't, we'll make you. We're offering you an opportunity to do great things for your country, but we are not above forcing you to do it."

He considered himself a patriot. Who would give all for his country. Just some could give more, and he was here to make sure they did. The man with the yellow eyes did not bother him, to him he was just another tool that could be used along the way.

Sam laughed even though there was no humor in it. "No you won't. You can't. I see the future, and mine isn't to be a soldier for you, or anyone else. So let's just end this now before I kill you. He recognized the mans face from his visions. One that hung over his head pinned to the ceiling like his mother and Jessica. All that had been missing was the flames.

"Now that would be unfortunate if that happened." He said. "But let's move beyond the pleasantries, shall we?" He said, fooling with Sam's IV. "You can see the future. The future is fluid. You see it, we change it. Keep a step ahead of our enemies. And you WILL see the future for us. And so much more, Mr. Winchester. Trust me." He said, injecting a substance that felt like fire moving through Sam's veins, down to the very core of him. "Now we can do this gently, or it will get worse."

It was like his dreams all over again. The fear, the pain, the utter sense of hopelessness. Sam grit his teeth, glaring at the man through the pain. He was a Winchester , and they were made of sterner stuff than this man could ever begin to hope for. "Kiss my ass." He ground out, his head, pushing back against the table and his eyes squeezed shut fighting it for as long as he could before the scream finally ripped its way out of him.

The doctor sighed. "I'm sorry it had to be this way." He said as he stepped away from the table. He looked at the yellow eyed man, who was allowed to roam more free, and interact with the subjects, hoping a kinship would form and reason could be seen. That they'd just co operate. "Get Psych in here. Find his weaknesses. I want results, not screams."

"I can tell you all you want to know about this one." The man said as he walked over to Sam and looked at him. "He's a special case."

Genuine fear filled Sam's eyes then as he looked up at his worst nightmare. "No!" He managed before the next wave of pain over took him, and he began to struggle harder against the restraints. "Dad sent you back to hell."

He had indeed returned to hell. And crawling back out had cost him. The power he had wielded before was lessened. He was more bound to this pitiful place than before. But he chuckled at Sam. "Do you really think hell could keep me? When I had so much to do here?" He whispered in Sam's ear. "Now, do I tell this nice man your weakness, your big, tender Achilles' heel? Or do you co operate? Because I would love to tear your brother apart. Limb from limb and let his screams fill my ears. I want to hear him beg for your life. Do you?" He and Dean had been 'one' for long enough for him to know that Dean wouldn't beg for his own life.

"You see the future clearer than I do." Sam rasped. "Do you really think they can control me, once they unleash what you have put in here? When they do, if you have harmed on hair on his head, you'll be wishing it was your brother in here not me." Sam had a darker side. A part of himself that he loathed and liked to pretend didn't exist. But it was there. It had always been there. "Hell will be a vacation."

"I hope they can't control you. They're a means to an end, and I hope you and the other children like you burn this place down around their ears." He replied. "Because once you cross that line, you're mine. But to save your older brother, you're going to have to cross that line. I love conundrums. Have you seen the future, Sammy? Have you seen the fun you will have? The power? The chaos? The absolute glory? How can you turn that down for your pitiful existence now? You can't, and you won't. It's just a matter of time."

"I have." Sam said. "And I will again." He told him, tapping into the information left stored in his subconscious. The pain, the drugs, they were opening the walls between his conscious and subconscious and that was a dangerous thing. Very dangerous. "I have saved him every time they touch him, I'll do it again, and every time he is hurt it just makes me hate you that much more. You can't control me once they succeed. And cooperating doesn't work." He couldn't help but admit. He had tried that once, he knew and wished he didn't.

"You make us do this, and you'll go mad." He said. "And once you go mad, he's not safe from even you. Have you thought of that? If you let us drive you insane, when your sanity is no longer there to stop the power from consuming you? When Dean rides in to save the day and you see him as just a stumbling block to crush? I've seen it, it's magnificent. I was so proud of you."

Sam shook his head. "I've stopped it too often for that. I won't let that happen. Won't let it." He said and screamed as the pain magnified in his head darkening his eyes, unwilling tears falling from his eyes as they too felt like they were on fire, all the emotion, all the fear and rage and desperation were focused on Azazel. His father had died sending this bastard to hell and here he was standing before him gloating again.

Twenty miles from the facility, Dean signaled for them to pull over. He was driving his father's truck, Bobby was in Bill Harvelle's old truck. This close, he was getting anxious. And the fact that he had driven the entire night as fast as he could. Andy doing a wonderful job of getting them out of tickets, especially with Dean on the radar as he was.

He got out of the truck and stretched as the others got out of the trucks. Zoe, of course, hanging back. She wasn't sure on this whole thing, but she was in it for the long haul. Definitely in it after Dean had sat her down with hot chocolate and explained what his brother had seen happening to him and the other psychics.

"Okay." Dean said. "Let's run this through one more time."

Andy nodded. "Okay, Zoe and I go up first, asking for directions from the gate guards. If they aren't one of us, I sweet talk them into letting us all in, if they are, well, she keeps them from killing us while we break in the old fashioned way. "

"Once inside," Bobby said, "Ash and I get to work making sure this place disappears completely. He hits the computer system and I rig the place to blow sky high, while the three of you get in get Sam and start out. We'll play rear guard on your way out the door."

"And anything I come in contact with gets shot with the tranq darts." Dean said. Just as powerful as the ones used on Sam, two steps and they'd be unconscious.

"Hopefully it's a nice snatch and grab." He said and sighed, running a hand through his short cropped hair. This was it, the big moment, the one where he got to prove he was a big brother worth his brass balls or just one big failure when it came to the big game. "Okay." He said, heading back to the truck. "Let's do this."

Sam focused his breathing, did everything he remembered watching them teach Dean about pain management in the hospital when they were weaning him off the morphine they had pumped into him for weeks. He tried to clear his head of the throbbing and rushing that overwhelmed his senses. He found the prayer in the recesses of his mind. It wasn't the Rituale Romanum, he would love to use that one on the sorry son of a bitch but had no desire to follow so closely in his father's footsteps just yet. Instead he focused upon something completely different.

"Sancte Michael Archangele, defende nos in proelio, contra nequitiam et insidias diaboli esto praesidium. Imperet illi Deus, supplices deprecamur: tuque, Princeps militiae caelestis, Satanam aliosque spiritus malignos, qui ad perditionem animarum pervagantur in mundo, divina virtute, in infernum detrude. Amen"

He muttered the prayer to St. Michael the Archangel the patron saint of Demon Hunters. He didn't know why the latin forms of the prayers were so much more powerful in the presence of Demons. Perhaps because that was the form they had been written in they were the true words instilled with power in stead of the translation into a language that had begun its existence as little more than a trade language. Perhaps it was because they had been recited so often with the pure belief of people in a darker, yet simpler time. In the end it didnt matter. Sam said the prayer in latin because it worked better that way. He said it in latin to see the look on the face Azazel currently wore. To tell him in pure Winchester fashion to piss off.

Azazel's face contorted as he backed away, as if he'd been sucker punched in the gut. "That won't save you forever." He growled as he left the room as quickly as his mortal legs could carry him, away from the vile, holy words.

Sam sighed a little in relief. The demon was out of the room, away from the scientists, away from him. He couldn't think about forever, he could barely think about his next breath as the pain washed through him in waves, as though it was burning its way into his brain, searing the pathways to allow them in to change him into a monster. To bring about that reality Azazel wanted. Where Sam killed his brother. He wouldn't let that happen. And that meant he had to fight this every step of the way.

Azazel showed weakness only when out of the room, leaning against the wall, nearly falling. The words were more powerful than young Winchester knew, especially as wounded and weak as he was. Crawling out of hell had cost him more than the mortals would ever know.

"When I know his weakness, you'll know his weakness." Azazel said to the scientist. That was his trump card to play with samuel, he didn't want to cash it in too early.

"Hey man." Andy said as he approached the gate guards to what looked on the surface to be little more than a small mental hospital. It was the levels underground that housed what they were looking for. "Woah! Really, nothing going on here, just looking for directions. We're all friends here right?" He said using his ability as the guard started to rest his hand on his side arm.

The guard smiled widely. "Of course." He said genuinely, and Zoe relaxed visibly as the guard opened the gate. "Come on in." He said.

Dean exhaled and nodded Ash and Bobby and they fell in behind Andy. He was one step closer. And that step was a good step, even if it left too many steps still until he found his brother.

"So hey, about those directions." Andy said continuing amiably as though the man were his best bud. "Can you tell me where I can find the…special… patients in this hospital?"

"Oh yeah." He said then gave them the directions down to the maximum security area.

"You know, you look really tired." Andy continued. "I'll cover for you while you go take a nap for a while. No one will ever find out." He patted the guard on the shoulder as he yawned and blinked eyes.

"You'd do that for me? You're good friend, man." He said as he stumbled off to find a place to sleep.

Dean smirked at Bobby, who had expressed serious doubts about Andy. "Told you he was good." He said as the guard walked off. Dean reached into the guard hut and grabbed some walkie talkies. Ash pulled on a hat and a jacket. "Can you get into the mainframe from here?" Dean asked as Ash set his lap top up.

"Maybe." Ash said. "Give me a minute, give me a minute."

"That's all you can get, man." Dean said.

Bobby was pacing nervously as the seconds ticked by feeling more like minutes. He closed his eyes with a sigh of relief as Ash gave a brief, and disturbing little happy dance of success.

"Okay, Dean, we're in. I will start playing hell with their power grid, while wiping all computerized evidence of their existence. Can't do anything about the hard copies. It's still gonna be out there but maybe people will think twice."

"Right" Bobby said as he gathered up the bag of explosives. "Once you all are out with Sam, set off the fire alarms and sprinklers. Get people moving out of here, cause its going to blow a few minutes after that."

Zoe looked at Andy worriedly. "Ahm...what..ah... what about the others... you know... the prisoners. They ahm... they could be locked up or tied up and.. and and not able to get out on their own."

"Then I'll have to send some people in there to fix that problem once the alarms start blaring." Andy suggested.

Dean looked at Bobby. "We'll get all we can, but we're not going to have time to evacuate everyone." And he truly felt bad about that. But to have the time to evacuate everyone would allow the workers time to stop them. And that was counter productive. "Let's go. Zoe, you're our cover girl. Ash, stay here and keep us booted in, see if you can reroute their cameras so they don't see us coming until it's too late."

This was nearly like 'capture the flag.' Or one of those drills his father would put them through. Except there could be no failure.

Sam was conscious, But he wasn't aware of his surroundings. His mind was torn in too many directions at once, like someone surfing channels at a high speed. Visions of the past, present and future slammed against his mind's eye until he was sure he was going to go mad with it all. And still they took notes, and checked their machines, adjusted the chemicals being pumped into his blood stream .

The scientists made all sorts of notations, and started playing videotapes projected against the wall. He might be able to squeeze his mind shut, but he was still exposed to a cacophony of sounds that assaulted his ears without pause. And still they took notes. Adjusting the volume and frequency according to the read out of his EEG, the wires woven through his thick hair to his scalp.

And still they took notes. Not noticing anything going on around them. Except the young man they were monitoring.

Sam's screams grew hoarse, little more than a whisper even though his chest seemed to concave with the effort. His eyes were blood shot, rimmed with red and swollen. The images of fire playing upon the wall seemed to encompass him, opening memories that shouldn't be there, images that weren't his to remember. Deaths of women he had never met, the cries of their infant children ringing in his ears. Children now grown. Children that were here!

Sam could feel their pain echoing his own, could sense their sorrow, and fear, and it seemed to merge with his own. Their madness seemed to echo in his head, this place was the beginning of the end. It was the culmination of the demons plans. They had thought New Orleans was Armageddon. It wasn't, it was only the breaking of the seals.

He closed his eyes, thinking it would be better to die in that moment than to be used to control the others. He couldn't let Azazel win, not after his father had sacrificed so much. Not after what he had done to his mother and Jess. To all the families he had destroyed in flames.

-------

"I can't believe I broke into a government facility." Andy said, nearly in awe as they silently went through the corridors.

"Shhh." Dean hissed. Andy was too excitable for his own good sometimes. Or Sam's good more precisely. "Just keep it down until we get there." They were on the sublevels now, sterile and bright. Like a giant lab. Exactly what Sam had seen in his visions. Dean's stomach clenched at the idea of what else Sam had seen happening for fact right now. "Just start unlocking the doors."

Andy had scored a pass card from one of the supervisors, who was now bound and gagged in a closet. If he was even awake yet. They were unlocking the doors to all the rooms they passed, for when Bobby blew the place. To give as many of them a fighting chance as they could.

Dean was a pragmatic. He questioned the wisdom of that tactic. Considering how some of the people had turned out, Andy's twin brother in fact, was it really smart to unleash them upon society after all this?

But it wasn't his call. He wasn't a judge, jury and executioner after all. He was just Dean.

Zoe crept forward and peeked around the corner ahead and then ducked back quickly hurrying to Dean and Andy "Guards.. guards at doors around the corner." She whispered excitedly "Big double doors. It could be a lab."

Andy took a deep breath. It wasn't as easy to deal with guards this deep in. they would have to have a reason not to react before he had a chance to talk. "I'm gonna see if I can reach them with out going out into the line of sight. " the time it would take to work his mojo verbally would be enough to alert the scientists inside and turn it into a very nasty mess. He closed his eyes and sighed as a ragged, tormented scream came from what he assumed was the lab, but there was no doubt whose voice it was.

He reached out and grabbed Dean by the arm "Don't make me get in your head man… don't jump the gun. We're almost there."

Dean nearly ripped Andy's arm out of its socket when Andy grabbed him. But made himself stay still, even if his very being was buzzing with furious energy. To just bust in there and stop whatever was making Sammy scream like that.

But Dammit, Andy was right. So he leaned against the wall and nodded sharply. He was fine. He'd have to bide his time and wait. He closed his eyes and clenched his jaw as another scream could be heard tearing itself free of his brother

Andy let go of Dean and crept forward to the corner Zoe had come from, looking back at him briefly, to see if he was going to stay put, then peaked around the corner, and took a deep breath as he reached out to the guards minds. Willing them to sleep, to simply lay down their arms close their eyes and go to sleep.

The guards yawned and rubbed at their eyes. Shaking their heads a couple of times. Before they just put their guns down and curled up in corners, snoring filling the halls.

"We good?" Dean said, impatient.

Andy nodded. "We're good." He said. He'd been working on it, to use his ability without having to say a word. It was important to know, in case he was ever gagged, or simply came down with laryngitis. And all those headaches finally paid off. "Let's go." He said, but Dean was already a step a head. Taking the card Ash had designed, a sort of skeleton key for all things electronic and slid it into the pad, the doors sliding open.

"Come on." Dean said as he strode through the doors. Gun drawn. He was ready for anything, and half hoped for some sort of fight at that.

Neither Sam nor the doctors looked up as they entered the room. There had been no alarms, no sounds at the doors, no reason to think of rescue or invasion. All he could think of was pain. The pain behind his eyes was blinding. At least blinding him to the world around him. The visions of the future as he had seen them faded, his future self began to fade into nothingness, taking the madness with him.

"Increasing the feed now" One of the doctors said as he touched the valve on Sam's IV, and another scream erupted from Sam.

"Stop!" Andy cried out in horror at what he was seeing "Every one stop. Just stop, don't move" He panted with the emotion of it all "Not you Dean…sorry. "

Sam's vision erupted into blinding white searing pain. He drew in a sharp breath and was certain his mind was shattering into a thousand little pieces. His ears filled with the fluttering of wings, screams, cries of rage and pain, he was surrounded by a presence he couldn't define… he couldn't begin to define with out going mad with it. He had been in the presence of ultimate evil, had been consumed with it. Filled and taken over by it, and that had been nearly enough to shatter his mind, but this was the opposite of that. Something so purely good that it made him feel every sin, every wrong thought and deed he had ever done as though it were a stone weight upon his soul.

Dean had spent enough time in a hospital. And he was a fairly curious person. He had whiled away the time by pestering everyone on what they were doing and why they were doing it. So he found a syringe and unhooked the IV. Drawing back until the syringe was filled with blood. Drawing out some of the chemicals along with it. Then ripped out the IVs, slapping gauze on sites as he detangled the EEG leads from his brother's hair.

"Dude, you so need a haircut." He muttered as he got the leads out without pulling out too much of Sam's dark hair. Then he pulled Sam up. "Okay, let's go. Now." He said, knowing he'd have to carry his brother out. But that was all right. Because as long as Sam got out, everything was all right. Everything else could be fixed.

Andy let Zoe and Dean head out the doors, he lagged behind, looking on the scene in absolute horror, and revulsion. These people, they made his brother look like a school yard bully. He had been sick, driven to darkness by the yellow eyed demon, this was nothing but pure human evil. "Go to sleep, do not wake up no matter what you hear." He told the scientists. This had to end. He would bear the weight of that on his soul if he had to but no one else was going to suffer at their hands. He turned on his heels and followed after Dean, preparing for the worst on the way out of the installation.

Sam felt Dean's presence, heard his voice and it was like a cooling wave washing over him. Dean was his sanctuary, his safety, he relaxed in his brothers arms, and let the vision wash over him completely. The image of one faceless Angel wading into battle wielding a sword that glowed with holy light, the voice in his head canting the phrase, as above so below. "as above so below." He murmured

Dean adjusted his hold on Sam, his brother was freakishly tall, and found himself grateful for the torturous rehab he had undergone in the hospital. Though this was hardly what they were preparing him for. But he made it out to the topside, even if he felt like his arms were going to fall off and he was barely keeping balance.

But he wasn't going to drop Sam.

He hadn't dropped him when he was four, he wasn't going to drop him now.

They were stopping in rooms, yanking out IV lines and injecting people with epic pens to get them up and moving. "Nice orderly fashion now," Dean called out to the other people, all around Sam's age. "But let's run like hell." Bobby was laying charges and wiring fuses. Soon this place would be nothing more than a smoking crater.

Sam looked around him, interacting with his vision, moving through it as though he were physically there. He was surrounded by display cases, old fashioned display cases. Filled with atrocities. Fetus's in jars, Skeletons assembled to look like mermaids, and other mythical creatures. One was the most striking to Sam. That of a human… indeterminate gender, which was the striking part. He had taken enough biology in college to know that there was a dramatic difference in the male and female skeletal structure. They had attached the wings of a large bird, very likely an eagle with its 6 ft wing span. Sam was looking at what appeared to be an angel. In a case beneath the angel was a sword. It was a simple sword. All one piece as though molded rather than forged. The metal was flat lacking in all luster, as though carbonized. There was an inscription on the blade, but it wasn't a language Sam had ever seen before.

"The sword of Ares" He read the inscription. "The Fabled sword of Attila the Hun." He didn't know which was more ludicrous to find in this place. The missing sword of Attila the Hun, or the carcass of an angel.

He looked around him at the rest of the store, everything looked so dated… old, even though it was obviously newly constructed. The people wandering through were dressed oddly to Sam's eyes. Dated… it was as though he were walking through a set for the grapes of wrath.

A man paused before him. His features obscured. There was a face there, he could tell the man had a face, but he couldn't make out the features. "on earth as it is in Heaven." He said in a voice that was like music, yet terrible at the same time. Bringing Sam to his knees.

It was then that he awakened from the dream, gasping hoarsely for breath and struggling against what ever it was that held him, whom ever…

This time, Dean nearly did drop him. They were at the gates and Bobby was helping him get Sam into the truck when Sam started thrashing.

"Sam!" Dean said. "Sam!" Slapping his brother's face lightly to get him awake. "It's okay. It's okay. We got you out. But I am seriously going to hurt you for that little stunt you pulled. Seriously. Hurt you."

"Dean…" Sam breathed out. "Too bad this is just another vision…" he mumbled as they got him into the truck "Better than the angel skeleton … or the war" He was definitely still out of it. "what stunt? I pulled a stunt? Last thing I remember is that dumb song going through my head. "

Dean rolled his eyes as he got Sam into the truck and Bobby reached into his pocket and pulled out the remote detonator. And they were rewarded with the sight of the facility imploding upon itself. All the way down to its secret sub basement levels.

"Yeah, well, this vision is going to beat the shit out of you. what the hell were you thinking? Drugging us, locking me in a basement with Ellen of all people and then taking on the feds on your own?" Dean said, barely refraining from smacking Sam upside the head. "I know Dad and I raised you smarter than that!"

"Dean..." Bobby said as he took the keys. "Lay off until we see if he's okay."

"you were in the basement with Ellen? Did you ask her about her and Dad? No… I guess you wouldn't. " He winced again, panting through the pain that was still coursing through his veins. It was decreased since there was no new input of the drug, but it was still coursing through his veins. "If you're gonna knock me out now would be a good time."

Andy came up and looked at them "you ready to go? Should probably be as far away from here as possible when the fire department gets here."

"Excellent idea." Bobby said. "Take Ash and Zoe in your truck."

"What about the others?" Andy asked, seeing the dazed former patients wandering around. Or standing still.

"You'll need to convince them to steal some of them there jeeps and head to an old abandoned farmhouse twenty miles away." bobby said. It took Andy a minute, but he caught on.

And found that when they were drugged like this, they were susceptible to his abilities as they meandered off to find transportation.

Or maybe they just found him logical and wanted far from here themselves. Andy wasn't questioning it as Bobby put the truck into gear and raced toward the highway.

Dean dug in the glove compartment and found some Tylenol. And a bottle of water. "Here." He said to Sam.

"Dean… its not over" He said as he fumbled with the bottle trying to get it open. "Dad was wrong its not over… he's back… not Dad… I wish Dad was back." He was rambling because rambling was easier than trying to order his thoughts right then. His head was still on fire, feeling like it had been blown wide open. "He was there Dean… He was using the government to get us all in one place."

Dean just listened as he took the bottle from Sam, took the cap off and handed it back. Like when Sam was younger, a lot younger, and couldn't open a soda can without cutting himself. But the words struck him. Nearly physically.

He was back.

It wasn't over.

He was back.

"Told you that you were all in the middle of a storm." Bobby said. He should have figured something like this. He couldn't place where John's resurrection had come into play. He was working on it, and he was a lot smarter than people thought. The ones who just saw the aging redneck.

"And I told you I'd get you out." Dean said to Sam. "That you're not allowed to die. Remember?" He sighed, still processing everything. "We'll figure this out." Because they always did. Because there was no choice.

"It's a war" Sam said as he took the pain pills and leaned his head back against the window. "He wanted me to destroy the installation… to take over the others and lead them for him. He was walking around in there all yellow eyed and surly… does not have fond memories of sharing a room with you Dean. " he added, then choked back another moan of pain. "Seems to think when my abilities get stronger I'm going to go all dark side."

"No you're not." Dean said firmly. "Remember, according to him we're supposed to be easy to kill and definitely NOT a pain in his ass. I think he's wrong on those counts too. Okay, he's back. We'll deal with it and send him back home. We did it once, we can figure it out again." Though he did grin at the comment of being a bad roommate to the yellow eyed demon. "Now how did an angel skeleton fall into that?" He had his own opinions on angels.

Sam explained his last vision to him, the battle of angels, then the old curiosity shop, the angel mock up and the sword. "The faceless man said on earth as it is in heaven." He told him and shuddered "That voice… it wasn't human… I've never heard anything like it…It was like I was being measured and found wanting… like every sin I have ever committed was a crawling filth and I was covered in it." He shook his head "It was the same voice that said as above so below when I was looking onto the war."

"Could all be abstract." Dean said. "No where is it written that your visions, while under the influence of some pretty serious drugs, have to make sense. Could be a pile of visions all mashed together when they were trying to push that freaky power of yours. Push it anymore and we'll be fitting you for some spandex tights or something."

"Dude, laughing hurts right now" Sam said unable to resist a bit of a smile at his brothers choice of words. "And no way would I ever wear tights…spandex or otherwise. I think they were hoping for the solid black with trench coat and shades look. But where they were actually headed was a hug me jacket." He had been slowly going insane as it was with the non stop visions… living his visions…

Bobby pulled off the highway and turned off down the side road that lead to the farm house in question." Could be abstract, might not" Bobby said with a thoughtful expression "You deal with hard core fallen angels all the time, nothings to say the other side cant peek in from time to time. I cant imagine anything scarier than an honest to god Angel. "

"Yeah, well, I'll reserve judgment on that one." Dean said with a roll of his eyes.

"How can you deal with everything you deal with and have faith in nothing?" Bobby asked with a chuckle, realizing he sounded like Pastor Jim at that moment. "You protect yourselves with holy relics and symbols. You bless water with a prayer before using it as a weapon. You've been possessed by a demon. A fallen angel kind of demon actually. And yet you're going to say you don't have faith? In anything?"

"I have faith in myself. In my gun. In my car. In my brother. Everything else has to stand in line." Dean said. "But he's talking battle of the angels, the sword of Attila of all people, and Armageddon. Thought we prevented Armageddon last time."

"Did you? Or was it just a dress rehearsal, rushed ahead because Tamiel had his own plans?" Bobby asked, checking in his rear view mirror. There was Harvelle's truck. And a bunch of cattle carts stolen from the facility. 

"Dean… I thought we had that miracle conversation when Dad came back" Sam said, feeling the others, as he had in the lab. Some of them were in bad shape mentally and emotionally. There was so much that needed to be done, and he was the one that was supposed to do it. He knew that some how. He had to believe in miracles. It was going to take one to get him through the next few hours with any sanity left at all.

Dean made a face. Miracles were supposed to that, miraculous. They weren't supposed to keep happening, even if they didn't seem like the kind someone would want. "Yeah we did." He said. "And the last miracle ended with me in traction if I remember. With a severe shortage of really hot nurses. So let's see if we can avoid the miracle bit."

"the last miracle ended with Mom and Dad back together again. Dad at peace… traction had nothing to do with the miracle. It had to do with the other side. Miracles I like. Curses however seem to be the order of the day." He shook his head "I'm… really feeling claustrophobic get me out of this truck please… now…" He could feel the panic beginning inside him as he looked out over the refugees. The other kids like him. Every one of them had lost their mother to the flames. Some had endured worse than Sammy could imagine after that… others were still confused. But he had to go out there and … and be like Dean. Had to suck it up and take charge and be the big brother protector until they could do it for themselves. That was his destiny. Had been from the beginning. He just didn't know if he were up for the job.

The angel ( was it an angel he had spoken to in his vision?) had found him lacking. He was tainted, the demon had seen it in him too. Both of them had. Yet he had to strive to be something better, something he wasn't sure he could be, and hope that it didn't back fire in their faces.

Dean signaled for Bobby to pull over, but Bobby kept driving. "I'm pulling over when we get to the farm house. Two more minutes." Bobby said. And two minutes later, as promised, he pulled over and put the truck into park. Dean reached over Sam and opened the door, helping his brother out.

"Yeah, well, everything comes with another side, and trust me, unless you like morphine, you usually make a plan to stay away from them. Because they hurt." He said as he got out also, the rest of the cars stopping behind them. Bewildered hospital gowned people got out of the cattle carts. Some seemed catatonic. Some were crying. Others were just stunned. "Oh man, what have we gotten ourselves into?" He said as he surveyed the crowd.

It took a almost another two minutes for Sam to get a grip on himself as he leaned against his fathers truck. Wishing in that moment that he were more like his father, more like Dean. But he wasn't. He was just Sam.

Just Sam.

One deep breath later and he was pushing himself upright and waving Andy over "I need you to go into the nearest town and get us some clothes and supplies for these people" There was nothing to do but to do it, Sam figured. If he was the one… the special chosen one to lead these people, then he had better pull it together. Right now the only place he wanted to lead them was to recovery, and then off to lead normal lives with nothing to do with the yellow eyed man as most of them thought of him. Some how he doubted that was going to be possible

He started to walk away from the truck and then felt the draft and swore. He reached into the truck and found one of his fathers flannel shirts and tied it around his waist to cover his back side. He gave his brother one of the most helpless looks he had ever worn then started to make his way toward the others, occasionally having to pause as a wave of nausea or dizziness washed over him, but none the less going to the others and getting them directed toward the house, reassuring them that they were safe for now, that it would be alright.

Dean watched his brother for a bit as he and Bobby fortified the old house. "Where'd you find this place?" He asked Bobby.

"Old hunter's place. When he died, t he rest of us used it as a safe house. Most have forgotten about it by now." Bobby said as he hotwired some electricity and got the pumps working again for plumbing.

"Sweet." Dean said. He counted heads. Thirty. More than Dad had ever imagined. And nodded to himself. He went over to Sam. "Go on and tell them we've got the electricity working, heat should be on soon, and plumbing is up and running. Andy's going to get clothes and food. If they need to be patched up, send them over to me in the kitchen."

This was Sam's gig. They wouldn't relate to Dean. He was the infantry. The front line at Normandy who had liberated them. He wasn't one of them. He also wasn't a doctor or a scientist, so if any of them needed patching, he should be okay for that.

"Thanks Dean." Sam said, meaning so much more than a casual thank you for the update and offer of assistance. His brother was going to be his life line in this. Dean was going to be the one that took care of Sam, when Sam sat down long enough to be taken care of. He couldn't help but wonder who would take care of Dean when Sam couldn't.

Ash had been a god send. He had managed to down load the patient files before completely wiping the slate clean. That little virus of his would be bouncing around the pentagon for a long time to come eating anything that came through involving the psychics. The man was a genius and was completely in his element. Thrilled at having taken on Big Brother and in his eyes won.

It had made Sam's long term task easier. He simply had to take names, and get people settled comfortably somewhere. Then he would be able to correlate that with the files later and find out who could do what and how much they had been manipulated by the lab.

He knew that there could be wolves in amongst the sheep, and he wasn't sure how they would deal with that. But they would when the time came. It was on the back burner. They didn't have a mind reader yet. Not one that they could trust anyway, and even if they did who knew if it would work on them. Andy's mind control didn't.

He hoped that Andy thought of other things the people would need for shelter as well. Bedding, maybe something to put the bedding on. This was turning into a full on shelter at the rate they were going. They were going to need to stay here for a little while, until things were smoothed over a little.

"hey Bobby" he called out as he looked out the windows "Might want to get those trailers hidden before they start scouring the area for survivors." With Andy gone getting supplies with his usual flair, there wasn't anyone around that could manipulate the feds in a non violent fashion if they came knocking.

He then moved on to triage, sending those that actually needed attention on to Dean. It was thankfully only minor things, little cuts and abrasions. Things that Sam and Dean themselves would blow off… until they started to get infected. But he knew that any little comfort received at this time would go a long way toward recovery for these people, and for forging a bond.

Some were afraid of Dean at first but Sam was able to reassure them. "No, he isn't one of us, but he is my brother so he may as well be" He told them. "If it weren't for Dean we'd all still be in that hell"

Usually that worked, but there were a couple of the women that were terrified of everyone but Zoe. And Sam was able to follow the logic to the why's of that. The rage that filled him was visible to any one near. His entire body seemed to tremble with it, and a near by window shattered – exploding into the yard in pieces too small to be called more than splinters.

Sam sank to the floor with a cry of pain, hands going to his eyes.

"Dude" Ash exclaimed "Don't go all Akira on us okay? You're gonna give Dean a full on heart attack. "

Bobby picked out a few of the more steady specimens to help him move the trailers as Dean moved from 'patient' to 'patient.' Chugging down instant coffee as he went. He was tired. He was completely worn out, and it was great not to be in charge right now. He didn't know if he'd appreciate that later, but right now it was a welcome break, honestly. He sat Zoe next to him to tend to the women who wouldn't be touched by anything remotely male, guiding her through the cleaning and stitching of wounds. Telling her the doses of antibiotics to give from the supply they had scored from the lab.

They'd cleaned them out of the normal drugs. Pain killers. Antibiotics. Saline. He nodded at his brother, he was doing good, for someone who had always been the youngest, the one who really had never been in charge.

Sam might have been his guide post through everything, but Dean was usually in charge, by default because he was older, or on orders from John.

He dug through his bag and went over to Sam. "I got a bunch of those morning after pills." He said softly to his brother, figuring why the women were skittish of men. And anything to focus Sam back on the task at hand, and stop breaking windows. To clear his eyes from that pain those headaches always brought. Because that's all Dean could do. "How do you want to handle it? This is your operation, baby brother."

Sam thought about it for a moment "They're gonna want to keep what little dignity they have left. Pull Zoe aside and hand them to her. She can talk to the women one on one and find out of they want them." Sam decided. "Coming from one of us… who knows how they might take it." He looked out over the room and shook his head "This is just one crop" He said for lack of a better word. "we know there are kids that are almost now that he was after…" He remembered the house, where they had been right before their father was captured and possessed. Right before the end of the world as they had known it.

"How long has he been doing this? How many of us are there out there waiting?" It was almost over whelming. And the almost part of that surprised him. He supposed he should be grateful for his time at Stanford now more than ever. Where he had been responsible for himself, and not been the follower for a change. He had never been the leader, but at least he had a time where he had not been in the shadow of the elder two Winchesters. "Did you bring my cell phone with? Or have Andy's number in yours now?" He had a list of things he needed for him to try and get donated that he hadn't thought of earlier. It was possible that Andy had already thought of most of it but just in case he wanted to get hold of him and get him on it.

Dean handed Sam his cell phone. "Glad you programmed him in, because we couldn't have done this without him. And I think it was good for him, to play the hero bit." And all the really good heroes weren't pure white, Dean knew that. So he wasn't surprised when the scientists and doctors hadn't made it out of the lab. "But right now we've got everything under control. So rest on your laurels and relax for a few moments."

It would get rough soon enough. Had to grab those moments in between as best you could and hold on tight. Dean knew that from experience.

Sam nodded "Yeah okay." He said but he was afraid if he sat down and let himself rest he would have his own melt down and he couldn't afford to do that yet. He still felt like he was on fire but it was down to a dull roar. He could function. Functioning through pain was a Winchester trait, but truth be known he didn't think he should right now. Not if he was going to randomly destroy things "get me out of the public view. Feeling a little shaky. They don't need to see me show any signs of weakness." He could function, but sometimes it was expecting too much to do so. He could make phone calls sitting on his ass.

Dean nodded and made a show of having to show Sam something outside. And led him behind the shed, out of sight from the people moving vehicles, the people inside the house, people still milling about. "Now you know how I feel." He said with a chuckle. On the no showing weakness part. Because when people counted on you to be their backbone, wasn't smart for that backbone to be weak. "Come on, let me check you over. What did they do to you?" Out of the group, he was back to being big brother.

Sam sank down onto the soft grass and sighed "I don't know. I don't remember being taken" He said, able to relax into a familiar post as well. He could handle being the leader later, when it didn't hurt to think or breathe.

"I woke up on the table there just as they started pumping all the drugs into me. God, Dean, ¦ I didn't hurt that much when you and Azazel tossed me through a building. I thought I was going mad with it." He ran a trembling hand through his hair "Said they were giving me an opportunity to do great things for my country, and if I didn't want the opportunity they were just going to have to make me."

Dean wanted to probe his brother's memory. What did he mean he didn't remember being taken? Or drugging Dean in the first place? but now wasn't the time. Not the way Sam's hands shook.

"Yeah, well, the only one who makes Sammy do any thing is me." Dean said with a chuckle as he hunkered down next to his brother. "So that was their first mistake. Their second was leaving me alive. And now they have to start from scratch. From what Ash said, it'll be hard to get funding again, might not happen in our lifetime."

But there was that war that Sam had babbled about.

One thing at a time, one thing at a time.

"I figure we're good here for a few days. Give everyone a chance to settle down." Give Sam a chance to settle down. Give the drugs time to work their way out of his system. Give his mind a chance to rest a bit.

"Good, cause I know I wouldn't be able to just go back to normal life and I wasn't there very long. I cant imagine how the others are doing. " Sam leaned back against the shed "We gotta watch our backs though. We don't know how many of the people here Azazel was able to recruit before you got there to save us." He took out his cell phone and called Andy, requesting that he see what he could do about getting beds and blankets as well. He said he was already on it and Sam sighed in relief "thanks man" he said and turned his attention back to his brother "I really wish his ability worked on the rest of us. Would make it easy to separate the wolves from the sheep. "

"Our lives aren't really normal, dude." Dean said with a chuckle. "Guess we'll just keep an eye on them. This isn't going to be fun, though. Forty people, one house. Two bathrooms..." He could think of a million things he'd much rather do. "And we always watch our backs." They'd learned the hard way, from Jo, that there were very few people in the world they could trust. And truthfully, the only person Dean truly trusted was sitting next to him with a splitting headache.

Sam nodded wishing things were different. He would love to just go curl up I a back room at the road house and sleep off this headache. Would love to have his life back the way it was before their father had died. Either time. He didn't want to get back up and go in there with everyone looking at him expectantly. He didn't want to play big brother to a bunch of strangers. But he had to.

"There has to be another way to destroy the demon" Sam said after a moments thought. "The colt cant have been the only way. Even if it was, if that could be created then something else can too. Cause I don't want to deal with that son of a bitch every couple of years."

"We'll find it." Dean said. They'd been looking, just not hard. Because they had been side tracked by other issues along the way. Like, for example, their father coming back from the dead. That had been a bit distracting, to say the least.

Now it looked like he'd have to really buckle down and look for it. And research with no immediate pay off wasn't Dean's thing. He'd be looking for something that might not even exist! But Sam was going to be busy with the other psychics, and he had to do something.

"Well, why were you having visions of Attila the Hun's sword?" Dean said after a pause, thinking. "You have visions for a reason, right?"

"Well that's how it was labeled in the curiosity shop. Who knows what it was I was actually looking at but it looked like you might expect the sword of Ares to look. It was supposed to have been made of metal from a meteorite, and this looked like nothing I had ever seen. It looked molded. Cant hurt to looking to swords. Especially swords connected to Angels. Not that Attila's sword was ever connected to angels of any sort."

"And I was hoping maybe you were having metaphorical visions." Dean said. "You still might be. Angels and swords? Yeah, okay. In a curiosity shop? Hey, does that mean we'll have to go find some carnivals? I'll take the midgets, you can interrogate the clowns."

"No clowns... Don't even think clowns right now. I might blow something up with out meaning to." Sam said with half a laugh. "I don't know how much of what they have done to me is permanent yet. I am hoping it fades with the damned drugs. Cause I cant control it, Dean, and that scares me... Even more than clowns."

"Sam." Dean said, firmly, turning to face his brother fully. "We'll handle it, got it? Just don't cry on me, because you cry at clowns, dude." he said with a quick smile. "but everything else, we'll deal with. Just no taking off, and I mean that this time. I seriously owe you an ass kicking for all the times you done that shit."

"no taking off. I promise" Sam said sincerely. "This isn't the time to run. I have to take this head on and there are too many people out there depending on me right now. Besides... You always follow after me anyway, and how the hell am I supposed to protect you, if you keep chasing after me, Dude" he said, although the look in his eyes told his brother he was grateful. Especially this time.

"That's what big brothers are for, right?" Dean said with a nod. "Besides, who's going to bug you about your freaking hair? Your hair is longer than some of the women's hair in there. That's bad. Wait much longer, we won't be using clippers, we'll be using a weed whacker." He stood up. "Come on, time to get everyone settled in." He saw Andy coming up the drive with the supplies.

Sam laughed "I'm not getting a hair cut" he said, although he figured getting it out of his eyes couldn't hurt. "I'd look like an oversized 12 year old." he smiled as he got to his feet. "we should get a hold of Father Reynolds. See what he has to say about these visions I am having about Angels and Swords. He might an idea or two." then he sighed "Or maybe an idea about how I am going to turn all these people into something the demon cant use against the rest of the world. "

"First thing's first." Dean said. "Get yourself under control. Take a shower. Eat some food. Get some sleep, even if you have to drug yourself with Advil PM. Ash, Andy and I can handle the rest of them until morning. Because you're no good to anyone if you're tripping over your over compensating feet. Got it?"

"Dude, there is no compensating going on anywhere" Sam said as they started back toward the house "I'll get a shower later. I have the feeling there is going to be a serious deficit of hot water in there. Can you call Father Reynolds while I am sleeping?" He knew Dean was right. If he didn't sleep off the effects of the shit in his system he would be bouncing things off the walls soon. Literally.

He told Andy what he wanted done with the supplies, and asked if he could handle some of the psychics that were still too scared to settle down themselves. "Dean and Bobby are gonna have their hands full with security I think"

"sure, man, I can do that. You hanging in there okay? You look some where between ash gray and pea green. Its not a good color." Andy asked.

"Yeah, I'm hanging in there, although I have been ordered to bed, and I think I am actually going to listen this time. " he said and looked over at his brother.

"I'll give Father Reynolds a call." Dean said. "And I've got first watch." Meaning he'd be on the porch watching for anything hinky going on. At least hinkier than having over two dozen psychics of various powers and strength within the walls. "Besides, I make some of them uncomfortable." Being 'normal' or something.

Too bad Dean didn't do normal, in any shape or form.

"They'll get over it. I think their own skin makes them uncomfortable right now. I know mine does." Sam said. "They just need Time to realize they are safe." Sam told him and started toward the farm house. He figured he could find the bedroom with their stuff in it easily enough.

He paused on the way through the living room to answer questions. Most of them about the yellow eyed man. Some were concerned about him, others scared of him and relieved that he wasn't there. He stepped to the middle of the room and spoke in a loud and clear voice that could as easily have come from his father, for the authority there was behind it. Even though it was completely Alien to Sam to be in this position. "I know everyone has questions and that you are scared. You have every right to be. But we're doing all that we can to make sure that everyone is Safe. My brother Dean and this gentleman here" he said indicating Bobby "Are going to be taking care of security for us, believe me you have nothing to fear from either one of them. Hell they were the driving force to come and rescue us in the first place. Andy " he indicated the other psychic "is going to be trying to get everyone set up in a bunk of some sort. I recommend everyone get some sleep. After breakfast in the morning we'll all meet and talk about things, answer the questions we can, and see where we go from here. Right now everyone is too tired, and still coming down off of the crap they were pumping through our veins. So please... Just listen to Andy and the others and we'll make it through just fine. "

He ran his hands through his hair and headed toward what looked to be the master bedroom, and sure enough there were his and Deans things. He changed clothes, and placed his pistol under his pillow before finally laying down on the bed and closing his eyes.

Andy got to work getting everyone set up. Cots were put together and bedding handed out. Dinner was whipped up by a few of them, and passed around. Dean watched the scene, wondering what the hell they'd just gotten themselves into, then took a few of the weapons and sat on the porch. Cleaning, loading. surveying the area.

His only thought was to go in and get Sam out of there. The rest, he was winging it. And barely winging it as it was. Sam wasn't doing much better, no matter how much he sounded like John for a few moments. Dean could see right through it.

But here they were, way over their heads like usual.

Things were quiet. At least outside. Inside there was some crying. A few screams. And not knowing if the demon was hot on their trail, he'd tracked down the screams, busted down a door or two, only to find a psychic screaming in their sleep.

A few of the more terrified somnolent sleepers, he'd tried a trick he'd mastered on Sam by the time Sam was six. "Shhh." he'd whisper and place his hand lightly on the top of the person's head. Nine times out of ten it worked. The tenth, well, it seemed to be a night mare (flashback?) worse than anything Sam had ever had. Even counting lately. But it had subsided.

Bobby came and relieved him, and Dean made it to his cot, making sure his knife was under his pillow. He glanced at Sam to make sure Sam was where Sam was supposed to be, then he was asleep before he knew it, on his stomach, one hand under his pillow, fingers curled lightly around the hilt.


	6. Chapter 6

They had started the day early, while the refugees were still sleeping. Sam had wakened early that morning, from a dream that he couldn't remember, and had gotten the others up and moving. They had sat around the kitchen table for 2 hours debating what was to be done and who was to do it. .And in general it had come to a lot of strong personalities with their own ideas.

Even Father Reynolds had been putting his two cents in after Ash had set up a video conference with the technology savvy priest. "The point of the matter is that your visions are quite valid. It has been surmised by several biblical scholars, that humans cannot see the visage of the Archangel Michael because he is made in Gods image, that is why you have visions of a faceless angel. His weapon of choice is usually the sword of righteousness... So of course you dream of swords."

"But why St Michael, other than the obvious that he's the patron saint of demon hunters" Bobby asked, not sure he was liking this concept. An actual angel interfering in their lives was potentially more problematical than a demon. Harder to say no to an angel.

"Sam invoked him to rebuke the demon. He always listens when invoked. This time he just decided to give you the added oomph you needed. After all it sounds like you boys are in the process of stopping Armageddon from happening before its time."

Dean scratched the back of his neck as he frowned. This was way over his head. He was in over his head. "Okay. Archangels and demons. Sounds like the stuff of some bad Hollywood epic with the pretty boy leads and wizened old advisors. Where's the hot girl?" He deadpanned and was rewarded with a roll of Father Reynolds's eyes.

"You can mock whatever you want, young man." He admonished with stern eyes. "But it changes nothing that your brother is having visions of angels."

"because it turned out so well last time." Dean interjected.

"Then prove me wrong." Father Reynolds said. Leaving God out of it for once. "Find what the visions want and if it leads to a mortal, so be it."

Dean sighed and drank some more coffee. "What are we supposed to do with all these psychics in the meantime?"

"We give them a sense of security" Sam said, having thought about it a great deal. "And its going to sound crazy, but well... This is as you keep pointing out, my gig... So here it is. We give them a sort of fellowship... Secret order what ever you want to call it Something they can call on for support and back up. " He scowled as Bobby rolled his eyes.

"I'm not a kid anymore Bobby. I know you and Dean have a hard time dealing with the fact that I grew up, but I did. And this isn't some childish daydream. I can either find a way to lead these people away from the darkness or Azazel will make sure I lead them into the darkness. So if you have a better idea let me hear it." he looked at the others at the table. Most were dubious, Including the priest on the computer screen. Andy seemed to be processing but Ash was apparently all over the idea, because he began spouting everything he knew about the operation of secret orders.

Dean listened as Ash started babbling. Joined quickly by Father Reynolds, talking of different secret societies in his religion, including the Templars, warrior priests and all.

"So do we get a tree house too?" Dean asked, and got glared at, which he shrugged off. Then Bobby laughed. "What's funny?"

"Well, there's always this farm house. Or the road house...both are fairly wooden." Bobby said as he settled down.

"Secret societies have existed as long as society." Father Reynolds said. "Aren't you already part of one? An underground network that moves through the shadows and fights what others deny even exists?" When it was put that way, Dean couldn't argue.

"Fine. We're one big fellowship." Dean said. "And Samwise can lead us all to Mordor, right?"

"Actually, kinda hoping he'll lead us AWAY from Mordor." Andy said dryly.

Sam started to laugh as well "There is no Mordor... And Samwise is just a ... Its just the last thing I have of Jess still. I am not a fat hobbit. " he said with a grin. "But I think with the people sitting here we can run things, and just... Get the others settled some how. This doesn't have to be all about being psychic... Its just another branch of what we already do. " He said " I know that most orders have ranks and progressions and all but I think its important that we don't. You're in or you're not. Those of us here are in charge of things that have to be done and eventually we'll have to train someone else to take over cause Hunters don't die of old age."

"what sort of things need to be done?" Zoe asked, wanting to know what she was getting herself into. It just seemed to be getting deeper and deeper.

"well, we need someone to handle acquisition, someone to handle the record keeping, someone to keep track of rites and rituals and research that we gather, sadly we need someone to handle the enforcement branch ... Cause lets face it... We're preparing for war. Bobby you called it a storm but lets be honest... Azazel wants to bring about Armageddon and he wants those like me as his foot soldiers. Its war." He sighed "And war means dealing with infiltrators and traitors as well as the conventional enemy. We might need someone to house items for us that we find along the way. Things that shouldn't be out in the general public"

Ash raised his hand. Like he was in school or something. "Ooh, research. Right up my alley. And the whole record thing. I mean, we're going to be mobile, so we gotta get 21st century on this medieval set up. I'm talking computers, lap tops, we all have to have them."

"Do I get a my space page out of this?" Dean asked with a grin.

"We should have some sort of webpage, even if we present it as a joke or something." Ash said. "All the hunter double talk and such to keep up to date and all."

"You can store what you need here in the church." Father Reynolds said. "It's holy ground, and I'm sure you boys know a way to make it even more secure."

Sam looked to Bobby who had been quiet all this time "You're our ritual man. I mean your house has so much lore buried in it that I couldn't even begin to sift through it all. And well... Dean is gonna need help. He cant be our security on his own."

Bobby nodded gravely "Fair enough." He took it very seriously. That wasn't the problem. He was just worried about Sam's habit of running off. He knew the boy always thought he was doing the right thing, but he wondered if he were really ready for this responsibility. Not that there was a choice Those people weren't going to listen to anyone else. They had latched onto Sam the moment he had opened his mouth.

"we need to teach them all the prayer of St. Michael amongst other things. I tell you it scared the demon. It was in his eyes. "

"A genuine invocation, cant say that I am surprised." Father Reynolds said "What about titles. It needs to be something you can use without worry of people hearing it. If you go military you are going to draw attention of people worried about Unabomber's and terrorists."

"Yeah I know" Sam said "I am open to suggestions."

"Dude, who said I was security?' Dean said. "can't I be the scouter of really cute girls or something?"

"Do you trust anyone else to protect your brother should he need it?" Father Reynolds said, peering at Dean through the computer screen, not willing to let this fall to Dean's basest thoughts. Dean scratched his neck again and shook his head. "Very well then. I'll research on my end for titles, etc, some organization would be nice I think. Give everyone the structure and stability they need."

"Then I guess now what we need to do is make breakfast cause I hear people milling about. Maybe hammer out some basic bi-laws while we are at it... Sort out if there is going to be some sort of oath and how binding can we make it" he said looking at Bobby for the last part.

Bobby was the sort of man you would expect to be John Winchesters best friend. Even if he did threaten to shoot the man more than once. He was the quintessential red-neck. Complete with junked up truck, thrashed farm house surrounded by cars that he worked on, and more flannel than any man had a right to. But he was also an absolutely brilliant man. A stone cold hunter that still managed to keep his compassion for humanity. He knew more about rituals than anyone else the brothers had ever heard of, and most of it he kept under wraps until it was absolutely necessary. Sam suspected that the man was easily as smart if not smarter than himself.

"well" Bobby said as he went to the fridge to start pulling out the boxes of bacon Andy had brought in, while Zoe got down the pancake mix. "We CAN make it an absolutely binding oath, down to and including sharp agonizing pain If you break it. But Can and should are two different things. "

"We should." Dean said as he found some mixing bowls and rinsed them out. "Don't look at me like that, we get one traitor or one person who can be bought and sold...and we're all going down. The government, the yellow eyed demon, god only knows who else. I'm serious. If it's going to be binding it's going to have to be binding in a big way."

"Those of us in charge should take the heavy duty oath. Because we have more responsibility to fall from and someday someone else that isn't family is going to have to take over those posts... May as well make it a tradition" Sam said "But... I don't think they're ready for binding and painful oaths. Maybe something in the middle ground. Some generic oath of loyalty to the order and each other once we are sure they are trust worthy. A vow of secrecy until then. Gotta build up on it. Cant drop it all on them at once. " Sam pointed out. "it can be binding to some degree but we have got to be careful how we handle this"

"Yeah, fine." Dean said with a sigh. But he understood the logic. He understood the people more than he would admit to, while Sam was sleeping he dealt with the screaming and the crying and the shaking. "So we'll take the painful oaths. Anyone have a problem with that?" He said, looking around to a room full of people shaking their heads. Including Father Reynolds, who, because of the Winchesters, had been indoctrinated into the supernatural. Giving last rites to a ghost would do that.

"I don't think anyone here is going to betray anyone else here willingly." Sam said. " But this is as far as that trust goes. For now who does what and why doesn't leave this room. " he said as he started to help out with the food prep. "I think we should start mingling with the others, getting a feel for them. I don't want to make anyone feel shunned but we cant assume everyone is on our side of this war or even wants to take part in it just cause they were at that installation."

"Sounds good." Dean said and grinned. "Look at that, Sammy's all grown up and put on his big bad leader boots. Good job."

"Ash, I'll email you what I find." Father Reynolds said, a spark of life back in his eyes, that hadn't quite rekindled since he'd give the deceased Father Gregory last rites. But it was there now. Nothing happened without a reason, and these two boys had drifted into his town for a reason before. He was sure of it, and Samuel's visions had just confirmed what he had already known.

Sam laughed and took the praise for what it was "you can be such a jerk" He told his brother, with a grin.

Bobby just shook his head knowing the line that would come next. He had heard that interchange for years. Even back when the come back from Dean got him in trouble from John. Which was one of those many parental double standards he had witnessed over the years. The boys were something else that's for sure. "here why don't you set these out there on the table " He said to Zoe, handing her the paper plates and plastic utensils. So far he had a huge mound of bacon cooked and looked at making another one as Sam took over cooking the pancakes.

"And you're a bitch." Dean said, automatically. It was an exchange they'd done for years. And once Dean had turned sixteen, John had stopped smacking him upside the head for calling his little brother a bitch. He helped Zoe divide up the food that had already been cooked onto the plates. There would definitely be enough for seconds, but he wanted to get it all going.

"

Things were coming together, and falling apart at the same time. He hadn't thought out the next move, he just wanted to get Sammy out of the G-men's clutches. He'd done that. And a whole other thing was set into motion by that. Strange, the way the world could turn, wasn't it?

"Come on, Zoe." He said. "Let's go feed the masses. You too Andy." If the word 'adorable' had been in Dean's vocabulary (which is wasn't), then he would have used it for Andy and Zoe, who had yet to be more than ten feet away from each other at any given time. Nothing like taking on the government and starting a secret society made up of hunters, psychics, and a priest for some bonding, right?

Sam and Bobby continued cooking, the older man looking over at him, studying him carefully. "what?" Sam asked finally.

"I need you to promise me something, Sam. I'm not sayin' it to be mean. Not trying to make you feel bad. But I need to know that you aren't going to cut bait and run."

Sam took a deep breath. "Guess I deserved that" He said although inside he really did want to protest that the question even had to be asked. " I cant guarantee anything in the future, Bobby, you know that. But I am not going to abandon what we are building here. I'm not gonna promise to make anyone happy or keep peoples comfort zones. I don't know where this is going, life has turned my plans upside down enough that I don't make too many of them anymore. Promises either. "

"Well, if your brother has taught you anything, you can't run to protect anyone. Because they'll just chase after you." Bobby said. "I don't have any idea what we're doing here, or what we're building. But I'm in it now, and guess I'll be in it until the b bitter end. Feel like I've lived seven lifetimes already." He'd already outlived most of the men he could have counted as his friends.

"Yeah, I know" Sam said with a sigh " I'm in for the duration no matter what I do. I can either do it my way or the Demons way. I'll be damned if I will let him win without a fight. I'm worried about Dean though" He admitted.

"how so?" Bobby asked.

"Dean has never really been one to take care of himself. But ... Its gotten worse. Since Dad died he first time. Guess my destiny has been eating him up inside, but its gotten worse. A lot worse. If I had thought Dean would protect himself or take care of himself I wouldn't have taken off those times."

"Your daddy...now don't get me wrong, he was a friend. But he was a jackass. He's got Dean hardwired to put you in front of himself. No matter what. And nothing we say or do is going to change that." Bobby said honestly. "But I'm sure you know that. Add that into a naturally hell raising reckless personality and I guess you do have reason to worry. But he's a survivor. As long as you survive. No pressure, really, but that's your brother. I'd tell ya to take him or leave him, but he'd follow anyway."

Sure, the phrase "I love that man like a brother" was tossed around. And it implied closeness. But that phrase didn't even touch the Winchester boys. They were a force to be reckoned with. And when they were reckoning with each other, it always got messy. He was still picking up his living room from the last time.

"Yeah I tried that whole leaving thing a time or two " He said with a laugh. The only time Dean hadn't followed him, he suspected it was because John told him no. "So, on a completely different subject. I know of a cipher that would have protected Dean from possession if he had left it on his body" he said shaking his head, thinking back to a lot of pain that could have been avoided if Dean had done as they had wanted him to do, but he would never say as much to the man. "Do you think we could put something similar on the back of medallions or something for the members of the fellowship?"

"Well, you would have been protected from possession yourself, had you left the charm on you like I told you to." Bobby pointed out with an arched eyebrow. Though in a whacked out way, it turned out for the best. Probably only men as stubborn and hard headed as Sam and Dean could have come through possession in tact, and helped with the exorcism themselves. And only with those two boys possessed would John have had the motivation to stop them in the first place. John would have tried anyway, but the motivation and love he had for his boys was what carried him through and made him successful in the end. Of that Bobby was dead sure on.

"I'm thinking about St. Michael's medallions." he said with a smile. "Seems appropriate. At the moment I am hoping the bastard is trapped in the wreckage for a while longer. He seemed diminished." Sam said "so maybe we have time to get things in order."

"It's very appropriate." Bobby agreed with a nod. "We'll see what we can find, there have been a lot of designs over the years...somehow I don't think the beatific ones are the ones for us." No, he'd be looking for the true image of the infamous archangel. The demon killing, evil smiting son of a bitch that even Lucifer was rumored to fear.

"No, I don't think the guy practically mincing on Lucifer's head is the way to go either " he said with a chuckle "I have seen some pretty impressive ones. Will have to distinguish it from what you can get at a regular shop too... Even if that just means enamel or something over the top. I don't know" He shrugged. "So... You knew Ellen and her husband pretty well then?" He asked.

Bobby laughed. "As far as I know, your dad and Ellen never did anything naughty, dirty or fun." He said, reading into that question. "What gave you that idea? But yeah, I knew Bill well when he was a live."

"Ellen's a bit weird about Dad. Not just he survived and Bill didn't weird. Not even if what the demon said about his death was true and she knew it weird." Sam said "And I know Dad wouldn't fool around with a married woman. Doubt that he fooled around much at all, but that doesn't mean they cant feel things... Or she couldn't... I know its a weird thing to have cross my mind but it does. Especially when I see her talking to Dean." he smiled "Sometimes I think she sees him as a pet project or something. The save a Winchester from himself project"

"Ellen probably did want to save John from himself. He's different from the rest of us, or he was." hard to think of John as permanently dead. especially since the first time he had come to terms with it, he was wrong. "We're from long lines of hunters. It's what we grew up with, what we know. Like you and Dean in a way. John...it was an all consuming passion. Besides raising you two up, all he lived for. For the wrong reasons for the most part. Vengeance. Grief. Pain. Rage. Who wouldn't want to fix him? And your brother, he's a fixer upper if I ever saw one."

'yeah, but you gotta admit, for all the similarities between Dad and Dean one thing is hugely different. Dean has the purest motives of anyone else I have ever met or heard of. He sees Dad as this huge hero. I mean superman has nothing on Dad in Deans eyes, but he cant see that he's the real hero. Dad was out there on a mission. Dean is out there to help people. Fixer upper or not, he's the real deal."

Bobby nodded, he had to agree with that part. Dean had chances to escape the 'life' and get a 'real' one, and had passed them by because he believed in what he was doing. With everything he had. He looked at Sam. "And why are you out there?"

"I don't have a choice" Sam said honestly. "I thought I did. I left and went to college, I wanted to be a lawyer so badly I could taste it. I wanted to help people in the so called normal world. Then there was Jess. I was gonna ask her to marry me. Had the ring all picked out, just had to go pick It up. Came back to this life because of her death. Then it became about Dean after Dad died the first time. I didn't dare leave him, and I wanted to send Azazel back to hell. Now... I either do things my way or the demons way but there is no escaping it. The horrible D word. It really should be outlawed" He said as he took the Last of the pancakes off the griddle.

"Your brother is right. You are OCD." Bobby said. "You do have a choice. You can't go into this feeling like you're cornered and have no choice. Because that will become your weakness, and it will be exploited. He's good at exploiting weaknesses, finding the buttons to push. You have to try to eliminate as many buttons as you can." He'd have to work on that with Dean too...Dean had quite a few buttons that could be pushed.

"I am not OCD." Sam said "At least not any more than any other Hunter out there" He had to amend. He had trouble going to bed if he didn't check the security measures but that wasn't OCD that was survival. "And what you're talking about...that's just a matter of perspective. Sure I have a choice. I could go back to Stanford, pray that I get that scholarship after blowing off the interview. But it would follow me, and it would destroy everything I love and care about to get me in line. That's why it killed Mom and Jess... Because they were in the way. It wants to kill Dean. " Sam told him. "So we can spin it any way we want. Play little mind games with ourselves so that we can say I am choosing to do all of this because its a good idea and in the best interests of humanity, but that's nothing but PR. It would be easier to leave Dean behind than to leave this ... This ... Destiny. And we both know my leaving Dean behind doesn't work."

Bobby wasn't entirely convinced the only reason the demon wanted Dean dead was to get to Sam. Sam was right, Dean was the 'purest' hunter he'd ever met. That had to be daunting to a demon.

"There you go throwing around the 'd' word. Destiny is what you make, destiny isn't assigned. Everyone has a couple of roads they can take. But if this is the road you're taking, it's not like anything you've ever done before. Your brother and you, you work alone. You have a support network you call on when you need it, but other than that, it's been the two of you. Three of you when your daddy was alive. Now we're talking a whole society. There can't be any wavering on your part."

"this society is... The only way to make things right. " Sam said "That monster took my father not once but twice. Took my mother, my lover, and every dream I ever had. I wont have a moments peace until that thing is destroyed. Not sent to hell, destroyed. I wont, I cant stop until that is done. " Sam said with more emotion in his voice than he had shown since his rescue. Some part of him still remembered things that would never come to be. Still remembered all that had been done to himself, his brother, to all those people he was taking it upon himself to protect. Or use as the necessity required. Yes, he knew that was part of what he was beginning. He didn't delude himself with thoughts of better him than the monsters. Thoughts like that would simply make him one of the monsters. Sam deluded himself with thoughts that it was giving them a chance to fight back rather than be used to destroy everything they had ever loved.

"The thing took my best friend...twice." Bobby said, in a rare moment of unguarded honesty. "I've seen what it did to you and your brother, not just the last round, but the way you were raised. It's cost us all. So you've got back up to the end, kiddo."

Sam smiled "Glad to hear it. Gonna need you. And that monster library of yours. " he knew that was a bonding moment between the two of them but also knew that he was probably the one man alive less interested in a chick flick moment than his brother. And that was fine. "How do you find anything in those stacks?" He asked, although he and Dean had a hand in disorganizing those stacks with their last visit.

"Magic." Bobby said seriously, though it was just really his own organization system that only he understood. Once he'd been as organized as a library, but he just had too many materials now. So they were designated into different piles. There was a system, even if it wasn't clear or visible to anyone but him. "That Father Reynolds should be able to help, he's surely got more access to Christian mythology than I do." Bobby had faith, and he believed, just not in organized religion.

Sam chuckled a little at the thought of Bobby magically sort out where a material was that he needed. "yeah. He's a good man. " not always the case with men of god. Or rather men that said they were men of god. "A little on the goodness and light, warm and fuzzy god side but he seems to understand Angels pretty well. Demons and Angels...well... Its just politics really so give him a little while and he'll understand demons too."

Sam had become somewhat Jaded since his meeting the priest. Prayer falling to the wayside in favor or research and reliance upon the one person he knew was watching over him. He figured there was something unholy about himself. No reason for god nor anything holy to protect him or watch over him.

"Everything's just politics." Bobby said with a note of fatigue in his voice about that. "Come on, let's serve the chow and see what the rest have come up with." He said as he grabbed plates and headed out of the kitchen.

Dean was doing his own interrogation of their new friends. Once he convinced himself to think of them as scared over grown children, he was able to get some information on their abilities, and their interactions with the yellow eyed man fairly easily.

"We got a few out there I would keep an eye on, man." Ash said as he redefined his search parameters in the database. "Couple of them were violent before they were picked up by the men in black. Not that it necessarily means anything since the two of you are about as violent as it gets but they seemed to enjoy the violence on non demonic entities. Now that may have changed with all the funky head drilling and trippy psychedelic drugs, but who knows?" He handed a list of names to Dean. "The others seem about as normal as the rest of us, not that that's any where near normal in the real world definition of things. "

Bobby shook his head. The sad part was he was beginning to understand what Ash was saying. He liked it better when the young man had been sort of an enigma that Sam translated into English.

Dean looked over the list. "Okay." Dean said. "We'll have to separate them out. In case they get all violent on us again. Can't turn this place into a war zone. And I'm not violent. I'm proactive."

"You're violent." Andy said. "You have more guns than I have bongs." Dean had to chuckle, remembering the bong he'd found in the warrior queen.

"Yeah, well, at least I'm a focused violent." Dean said with a shrug. "Okay, I'll take the violent ones."

"Sammy's not gonna like you doing that." Bobby pointed out.

"Which is why we're not telling him." Dean said. But if they were truly violent, he didn't want them near his brother. Better he found out than Sam.

The dream had come again and the instructions were clear. Winchester was unworthy to lead them. He had fallen from the chosen path and had to be stopped. He hadn't expected the man to be left unguarded. Obviously his friends were weak, and foolish if they thought that anywhere was safe for the chosen one. Another would fill the chosen's place. The yellow eyed man would chose from amongst them the ones that were true to the path.

He slipped into the bedroom and watched the man sleep. It was too easy, oh so very easy as he crept closer. He had been warned not to wake him. He raised the blade over his head and prepared to bring it down.

Dean did a headcount of the ones pegged as violent. And one of them was missing. He sent Andy and Bobby off in separate directions. If Andy stumbled upon him first, he was to yell. Dean headed off in one direction and stopped.

"Sam." He said, more of a breath than word as he ran toward the master bedroom. To see one of the guys standing over his brother's sleeping form, knife ready to drop on some place not compatible with life if cut. And that was all Dean needed.

The Winchesters were a strange duo, they really were. They'd argue well into the night about some stupid little thing, but the minute one of them was in any sort of danger, any observer would feel sorry for the person causing the danger. Like now.

Dean launched himself at the man with a growl. Whatever powers this guy had, he didn't have time to turn them on as Dean tackled him and made a scramble for the knife. Because no one hurt or threatened Sammy. No one. The man fought for the knife, snarling at Dean about 'unworthy chosen ones' and 'fallen off the path' or some such nonsense. Dean wasn't paying much attention as he grappled for the blade, hands getting sliced as control was fought for.

This guy was stronger though. Dean chalked it up to some strange psychic ability. He hadn't had time to commit abilities to names or faces yet. But he knew he shouldn't have been surprised when he felt the knife. Sliding in like his skin and muscle were nothing more than butter. Being electrocuted hadn't been fun. Traction even less so. But this...this was pain as he screamed.

Sam had been fighting to waken from his sleep at the sound of the struggle but it had almost felt like he was being held under. The sound of his brother's scream broke through the heavy fog that covered his mind. "No!" He screamed and the man flew backwards away from his brother, crashing into the wall , causing the entire house to shake with the force of it. He glanced at Dean covered in his own blood, struggling to get to his feet and failing. Still under some misguided assumption that Sam needed protection. "No one touches my brother." Sam said in an ominous tone that sounded completely alien coming from his lips. His eyes narrowed and the room was filled with a sickening crunching sound and a strangled scream. "No one." He repeated as he allowed the body to fall to the floor. The man's torso was little more than jelly inside his skin.

Dean managed to flop himself onto the bed. The man went flying and he could only assume in his woozy state that Sam had something to do with it. Which was fine. But Dammit, he was going to be the first Winchester in recent memory to die in a bed. Change of pace. Easier clean up too, he figured, just ditch the mattress after he bled out. "Sam.." He said, looking over at his brother with hazy eyes. Sam was standing. Good. Sammy was all right. That's what mattered in the end. "Think I can trade the 72 virgins in for 72 hookers? On God's tab?"

Sam shook the darkness from him with some effort. His horror at the murder he had just committed fading away as he rushed to his brother's side and stripped his shirt off to press it against his wounds. "Sorry, neither. You're not going anywhere." He said pressing into the wound as hard as he could to slow the bleeding. "Bobby!" He yelled at the top of his lungs. "You know these constant attempts at dying on me, getting old, bro."

Bobby entered the room and looked around quickly before advancing toward the bed. "What the devil happened in here?"

"He tried to kill me" Sam said. "Dean decided to take the blow instead." He didn't look at his victim, he was afraid he would lose control again and do even more damage to the man's body. Dean should have let the bastard kill him. He was becoming a monster.

"Hey," Dean said with a weak chuckle. "What are brothers for, right?" Bobby moved Sam's hands a little. He had to see the wound. And immediately put Sam's hands back, putting his own on top to apply more pressure. "Ow..." Dean said.

"Hush." Bobby said, giving Sam a worried look. It wasn't good. "We got a doc on the way, remember?" He said, to assure Sam. As long as he made it in time. Or all the pressure in the world wasn't going to keep Dean's blood where it should be, inside his body.

"Just a scratch...right?" Dean said, feeling the silence more than the words spoken.

"Oh yeah. Just a nice scratch." Bobby said automatically.

Dean looked at his brother, and put his own bloodied hands on top of Sam's. "Whatever happens...you're not a monster. Unless I am. I was going to kill him too." Because no one was allowed to mess with Sam anymore than anyone was allowed to mess with Dean.

"Whatever man, you aren't going anywhere. I'm not doing this alone." Sam said. "Go get Andy." He said to Bobby. "Have him go get a doctor from in town, he- he can make him forget afterwards." He wasn't going to lose his brother. This was his fault. He should have found a way to ditch Dean and make it stick. He might have been trapped in hell for the rest of his life but it would have been worth it to keep Dean alive and safe.

"You could, you know." Dean said, closing his eyes, because it was just too much work to keep them open. Bobby ran out the door, bellowing for Andy. "You're the driven one. I'm the...the belligerent and handsome one." Not that he wanted to die, but he knew when his number was up.

Then again, he thought it had been called three times before, and been wrong. Third time obviously hadn't been a 'charm' (when his father had exorcised the demon out of his broken body) so why should the fourth? He forced himself to take the deepest breath he could, and held tight to Sam's hand, exerting as much pressure as he could on his wound, in addition to what Sam was doing. "Sam, I got this. Gotta move that body before the doctor comes, or he'll be too distracted to do a good job. Got enough scars, don't need another big one..."

"Chicks dig scars." Sam said not moving an inch from his brother's side. He had to keep pressure going. "I crushed him." Sam said. "What did they do to me?" He asked before he could stop the words coming out of his mouth. This wasn't what Dean needed to think about right now. "There are easier ways to get away from me, you know, much easier, most of them involving girls in bikinis on warm beaches."

"We tried that. We both ended up possessed, remember?" Dean said, laughing. It hurt to laugh, but he laughed anyway. Nearly hysterical. He guessed it was ending now. And there was no one to make a deal with. No one to try and double talk or convince. "Go move the body. Do not make me get off this bed and try to move it myself." Cover your tracks, that's the first thing their father had taught them. Especially in anything that could be considered even remotely criminal. "Then we'll find out what they did to you." He was going into shock from the blood loss. "Ash might have something by now. Might need some help downstairs though."

"Andy will make sure they don't see the body, don't try and distract me. I'm not going to walk away and let you bleed out." Sam insisted. "I'm not losing you too." He conceded far enough to use one hand to toss aside a blanket from the bed so that it covered the body. He didn't care what happened to himself at this point. If Dean died, it just didn't matter.

Zoe entered the room with a couple of towels to use instead of Sam blood soaked shirt. "They're on their way back with a doctor." She said. "It wont be long now."

"Sweetheart, never use a phrase like that around a guy bleeding to death." Dean said, chuckling. He was entering the loopy stage. "Won't be long now, hate that phrase. Now Sammy's gonna watch the clock, if there is one, like a pot waiting to boil."

Zoe looked at Sam, careful to not look too much at Dean. She'd never seen that much blood before. Maybe on TV, but this was different. She could smell it.

"Sam, promise me. Salt and burn and scatter. Got it? Salt and burn and scatter. My car's at Bobby's. If anything happens to it, I swear I'll possess it and run you over." Dean said through increasingly paling lips, as if all the blood he had was headed to his gut, eager to spill out.

"Fine, fine. I promise but you're going to be old and gray before I have to perform that duty, with a dozen kids turning up from these bimbos you keep sleeping with standing around watching. I swear to god if you die on me, I will just bring you back. They brought Dad back; I can bring you back, and then we'll see which one of us is a bitch." He said adding the towels to the mess he was holding tightly against his brother's wound, increasing pressure as much as he dared.

"You're the bitch." Dean said, groaning at the increasing pressure, eyelids fluttering in protesting to the new wave of pain, right when he was starting to go blissfully numb. His hand on Sam's went slack as his body finally gave up the fight to stay conscious, figuring it had more important things to worry about.

Bobby came bounding into the room, dragging the doctor, Andy close behind.

"What the hell?" The doctor said, stopping short. Andy grabbed him by his shoulders, working his mojo.

"Help this man. He cannot die because you will save him." Andy said emphatically.

Sam reluctantly moved away, letting the doctor come in and take his place. He was trembling and staring on with wide eyes. This was where his part in the drama ended. This was where he had to sit back and helplessly watch as someone else tried to save his brother. He looked to Bobby and Andy then swallowed hard, turning his attention back to Dean.

It seemed that he had stood there for an eternity, watching the man work to save Dean's life. Sam didn't move, wouldn't move. No amount of convincing or coercion could make him turn away. He looked at the doctor expectantly when he finally finished. "How..."

"I'm working in a dusty farmhouse, probably crawling with bacteria." The doctor said. "The knife wound is nice and deep, slicing up and out. He needs blood. He needs antibiotics, and I'd feel a lot better if I could wheel him into surgery."

"Can he live without the surgery?" Bobby asked.

The doctor reluctantly nodded. "He needs blood."

"Direct transfusion?" Andy suggested. "I read about it on a trauma website."

"You'd need an exact blood type." The doctor said.

"I'm AB neg." Andy said.

"A negative." Bobby said and looked at Sam. They had no idea what his or Dean's blood type was.

"Use me." Sam said. "I've donated for him before. However much he needs you give him. Andy is the back up if I don't have enough in me. Where do you want me?"

The doctor directed the men to pull over the cot next to the bed Dean was laying on. "Over there. Go wash up first."

Sam growled in response but hurried to the bathroom to clean Dean's blood from him and wipe at his own face, staring at what he was sure was a monster in the mirror. Something no longer entirely human. He shook it off, there would be time to sort that out later. Right now his brother needed him and that was all that mattered.

"Alright then." The doctor said as Sam returned and lay down on the cot and offered his arm.

The doctor pulled out a pump he converted for the purpose. Normally it was used to pump out someone's stomach in an emergency, but no one needed their stomach pumped. Then tied the tourniquet around Sam's arm jabbing him with the biggest gauge needle he had. He did the same to Dean, but Dean didn't flinch. Or even twitch. Then he hooked up two ends of the tube and started cranking the pump. "You tell me when you start to feel woozy or nauseous." The doctor said to Sam. "Don't need you unconscious too."

Sam nodded but figured it didn't matter if he passed out or not. The important thing was his brother survive this. Nothing else mattered. Not himself, not the fellowship, not the quest to stop the demon. All that mattered was Dean. If everything else fell to the wayside never to be seen or heard of again, Sam could live his life with out much difficulty. Losing Dean...there was no coming back from that.

Bobby leaned in close to the doc. "You keep an eye on him, Doc. He won't tell you a damned thing." He merely raised an eyebrow at Sam's scowl. "You have another option here. Don't push it, Sam."

The doctor had delegated turning the pump to Andy as he finished stitching up Dean. "I have my hands full." The doctor said, raising an eyebrow at Sam as well. "If his brother survives, he's going to need some support, and help for at least the first few days. He'll be on strict bed rest. If he wants to push himself to the point where he is of no use to his brother, that's his choice, not mine. Especially since it's not like we don't have another donor here."

Sam just scowled at the man and draped his free hand over his eyes. He didn't care at this point if he lived or died. This was his fault, what he had done afterwards was his fault. It didn't matter that the man was homicidal, he had crushed him with out thinking. He reacted in rage and fear and a man was dead. Because of Sam's powers. Could he lead the others if he couldn't even control his own powers?

It seemed an eternity later when Sam looked up and sighed. "I think I should be done now." He didn't want to stop. He would gladly give every drop to his brother to keep him alive. But Dean would feel guilt if he did that, and he had promised to see this through to the end, so guilt and terror and lack of control aside, that was what he had to do. "How is he?" He asked, swallowing against the nausea.

"He's done too." The doctor said as he detached first Dean, then Sam, putting gauze and pressure over the holes in their arms. "Go rinse that out in the sink for me." He said to Andy, who was looking a tad bit squeamish at everything. "I'll sterilize it when I get back to my office." He looked at Sam as he took the younger man's pulse. "He's pinking up. He'll be okay. He'll need strict bed rest for at least two days. No heavy lifting or strenuous activity. And I'll leave a script for antibiotics that he'll need to take religiously. No solid food, no alcohol until tomorrow. If he smokes, he shouldn't do that either."

Bobby tried not to laugh, and instead j just covered his mouth. Bed rest for two days? Yeah. Okay.

"Right... okay... don't suppose you have restraints in that bag of yours?" Sam said shaking his head. "Otherwise we'll have to resort to duct tape." He knew his brother. Once he was able to lift his head he would be out of that bed if they turned their head for a moment. "Only so long one of us can actually physically sit on him. Ahm...what about pain management?" Sam asked.

"I can give you some percocet or percodan." The doctor offered and Bobby scoffed.

"How about something that will knock him on his ass and make it easier to control him?" Bobby said.

"Oxycodone." The doctor said. He was usually quite conservative with pain medications, but the man would be in the kind of pain to warrant a morphine derivative. It was a good choice, for unbeknownst to the doctor, Dean had built up quite a tolerance to the run of the mill pain killers.

Sam felt the world spin and lay back down on the cot next to his brothers bed. Dean was going to be out for a while. He could afford to sleep off the wooziness of blood loss. And sleep he did, although he woke every time Dean moaned or paused too long between breaths to suit him.

The next few days were spent weeding the wheat from the chaff amongst the refugees, and sorting out exactly how this little society of theirs would function. They set up the laptop with video conference in the bedroom so that Dean could at least participate in that. They had to threaten him more than a few times with duct tape to keep him in bed but all it took was one incident of nearly passing out and hitting the floor to convince him to stay in his bed.

In the end out of 30 psychics a dozen were inducted into the fellowship, another 10 was being watched to see if they would be able to function in the real world first. The remaining were dismissed with no knowledge of the society. These were the violent ones. But the death of Dean's attacker left no doubt in their mind that they did not want to challenge the Winchesters now or ever.

Forty seven hours, fifty nine minutes and fifty nine seconds, Dean dragged himself out of the bed and carefully down the stairs. Not only was he allowed out of bed now, but he was allowed beer. And a chance to see for himself how everything was going.

The trip to the bathroom to brush his teeth had been uneventful at least. The stairs were a challenge, but at least they had a railing as he paused in the doorway of the kitchen and let a grin split his face.

"You were planning on bringing some food up to me one of these days right?" He teased. "How about a beer?"

"Lunch is cooking, you can wait. Beer is in the fridge." Bobby said after looking at his watch. "Sit down before you fall down." He said giving Dean a severe look.

"Good to see you up and around man. Zoe and I are gonna move in here and maintain it as a safe house for...you know." Andy said with a grin.

"Which means the rest of us can get the hell out of Dodge before they give us cavities just by being in the same room." Bobby grumbled.

"Awww...that's sweet." Dean said with a chuckle as he made his way to the fridge. Movements were still slow, careful. The one time he'd tried to break bed rest, he'd nearly ripped some stitches. That was an Oxycodone moment, even if he hated to take the stuff. Made him hazy. Reminded him too much of the morphine drip. "She meet the warrior queen?"

"Not yet." Andy said with a laugh. "I sent for her, one of the others is driving her back this way." One of the others who was like him in personality. And had his own version of the warrior queen to get back to after doing this one favor.

"Good luck with that." Dean said. "Where's Sam?"

"He went for a walk." Zoe said. "He's ahm...been.. well... ahm...moody...the last couple of days." She told him honestly, in spite of all the rolled eyes and sighs in the room. She had a sister. She would want to know what was going on with her no matter how screwed up the situation or how sick she herself was. It was a sibling thing.

At least a loving sibling thing.

"He's alright." Bobby said as he started to dish up the chow. Bowls of stew and cornbread fresh out of the oven. "He's just being a Winchester." John used to go walking and brood on his own all the time. Bobby didn't think anything about one of John's Boys doing the same thing. There was enough of John between the two of them to make up for their father's absence that's for certain.

Dean gave Bobby a look and grabbed another beer and headed out. The squaring of his shoulders showing Bobby it was just plain useless to argue. Walking was supposed to be good, right? Sure, Zoe was probably getting a talking to right now about letting Dean in on Sam's moodiness, but she was right. He wanted to know. This was his brother, after all. And he'd been so out of it the past two days. Spent most of it staring hazily and trying to keep up with the conversation on the fellowship. Even then he'd have to look over notes later. Damn drugs.

His beer was half gone by the time he found his brother, just loping around the perimeter. "Hey." He said to Sam and offered him the other beer.

Sam smiled a little seeing his brother. "Hey." He said in return, taking the beer from him. "Thanks. How ya feeling? Wanna find a place to sit down?" He was glad to see Dean up and around, and being the big brother again. If he were well enough to track Sam down, he was getting better.

"Think I'll just...lean." Dean said with a chuckle as he found a tree. "Done enough sitting and lying for my taste lately. Now that I'm finally off the drugs...and Bobby stopped spiking my food with them...kinda had this feeling no one was bothering to check up on you. Do the normal shit like tell you to cut your hair. I tell ya, Zoë's on the verge of braiding it while you sleep." If he slept. He didn't look all that great. 

"Nothing to check on really. I'm fine." Sam said. If you didn't count the fact that he was becoming a monster. Some creature that killed with a look. "And so is my hair. I can see just fine." He said with a smile. That had always been the reasoning in the past I have a son not a sheep dog how the hell do you expect to see through that mop to drive? "So... do you remember giving me Christine?" He teased, figuring it would be the best way to get the topic changed.

"Uh...yeah...if I died." Dean said with a laugh. "Hello! Land of the living here. But if I see any more Jell-O I'm going to scream." Since that's what they decided he should eat for nearly two days. "So keep your mitts off my car. She wouldn't behave for you anyway. You don't know how to drive. Seriously, Sam. You know we should...you know...um...talk...about it."

"So, you get up out of bed just to give me a driving lesson? " He said being intentionally obtuse. "I guess that makes sense since I don't remember there being anything said about when you die." He teased. He didn't want to talk about what he was becoming. He didn't feel guilt about killing the man. He would do it a thousand times over to save his brother and never bat an eye. It was how he had done it that scared the hell out of him. That it was nothing more than absolute rage focused at the man and he ceased to be. Turned to so much jelly with nothing but a glare. He hadn't intended to do it. Hadn't thought, he had just ... done it. Like it was instinct.

Instinct to lash out and destroy.

Dean chuckled. "Believe me, you try and take my car, you're going to wish for the Nair in your shampoo again." Dean said with a smile as he drank his beer. "You know what I'm talking about. Sam, I wasn't going to subdue him, or incapacitate him. Given a few more seconds, and a little more luck on my part, the knife would have been in his gut."

"That isn't what bothers me." Sam said honestly and finished off his beer in one long drink. "If I had shot him or stabbed him, or even just used my mind to direct the knife it wouldn't bother me. But... But I crushed him, Dean. And I didn't think... I just ...did it... because I was angry and scared for you."

"Dude, I was going to kill him too. You just beat me to it." Dean said. "It's all right, Sammy. All those drugs, they've got you out of whack. We'll get it under control." Because his brother was not allowed to think he was going all dark side on them. Not now. Not ever. "Yeah, you crushed him. Serves as a nice warning, actually, from what I heard. And, you know, thank you for that."

"When I was doing it... It... It felt good." He said and had to swallow hard not to throw up. "I have spent so long helpless against what ever it was that was coming at us... At you because you always put yourself between me and it... I almost lost you... Again... " He shook his head. "Because of me... And I think I lost a piece of myself along the way. "

"No you didn't." Dean said. "I'm still here." He pointed out. "Actually there's a story going on about me in the house, you know. That I'm not actually a Winchester, I'm the second survivor from planet Krypton or something." He said at an attempt at levity. "Dude, it was an adrenaline rush. You finally got to fight back after everything those bastards did to you. I'd think you were nuts if it didn't feel a little good. The first time Dad died, hunting was my only escape. The only time I felt...alive. Because everything else was just moving in slow motion. Like everyone else was wading through water, and I was trying not to drown. You were right. I was erratic, on edge...scared myself sometimes. And I didn't have freaky mind powers to deal with on top of it. My point is...I don't know what my point is. Guess just that I'm here."

"Nah... You're a Winchester. Although there was this guy on Smallville that looked like you a bit..." He said trying to tease a little. "Jess thought he was cute and I didn't let her watch it after that. It was just too weird." He sighed. "You can't keep throwing yourself between me and what ever is out there." He said seriously. "I need you here... Alive and well. If you aren't here to ground me, no one... No secret society... No old friends of Dad's... Are going to be able to keep me human. You have to take care of yourself too, Dean. I mean it ... And technically... I'm the boss."

"Technically you're a bitch, but we won't speak technically." Dean said. "But since you started it, I'm the great protector or something, right? I think I have my latin translated correctly from Father Reynolds's feeds. And I will throw myself between you and whatever is out there because you're my brother. And that's what I do."

"I think he called it an advocate. It's all on my computer. I guess titles are important for later generations. " Sam said shaking his head. "You get promoted to doing what's his names job... You know... The one that makes sure we have all the stuff we need. Or you know... The guy that gets to enforce the bi-laws by ahm... Force... Doesn't translate well. Still think the titles are funny. I sound like a school janitor or something."

"So basically I'm like the enforcer. I can handle that." Dean said with a chuckle. "You know, I was going to let the janitor thing go. I really was. Now you made it fair game. But seriously Sam, you're fine. You'd kill for me, I'd kill for you, that's what brothers do. In the most basic way anyway. Still doesn't mean you get to hover just because I've got a cool new scar."

"Until you are 100 percent... You can either have me, or Bobby hovering over you. Take your pick." Sam said with a grin. "Then again maybe I should just let Bobby have that job, you listen to him more than you do me."

"Hey, anyone who could take down Dad gets total respect for balls in my book." Dean said with a chuckle. "So we're cool? No more moping around the perimeter?"

"We're cool." Sam said. "I'll be glad to get back on the road again. I want to find that sword. " He told his brother. "I can't help thinking it's the answer we're looking for."

"Then let's go." Dean said. "No time like the present, though I gotta say, between you and Father Reynolds, you both sound insane. Chasing after a mythical sword that may or may not be some big weapon against the forces battling heaven...you do know that's pretty nuts, right?"

"yep, right up there with demonic possession, resurrection of the dead and killing someone with your mind." Sam said as they started walking back toward the house "come on... I'll drive you back to my car" He teased.

(end here?)


End file.
